Nancy Louise "Nan" Roye

Nancy Louise “Nan” Roye, 95 years young, passed away on Sunday afternoon, February 24, 2019, at Lancaster General Hospital. She was a resident of Homestead Village since 2013. She remained fully committed her entire life to her children and grandchildren, her community, and her belief in the Democratic party. Born in Columbia, Pennsylvania in 1923, Nan grew up surrounded by family and a small town that shaped her independent and self-reliant personality. Her father Walter was co-owner of the Susquehanna Glass Company and a political leader in the community. Her mother Anna Witmer was a homemaker and mother to Nan and her younger brother Waltie, who died in 1946. Nan graduated from Columbia High School in 1941, and the following fall entered the New Jersey College for Women (now Douglass College at Rutgers University). She majored in art and upon graduation in 1945 entered a training program at Macy’s in New York City. Within less than a year, she moved to House & Garden, a Condé Nast publication, and served as an editor until 1950. Nan met her husband Edward Rowen of Boston, Massachusetts on a vacation trip to Bermuda. They were married in February 1950 and lived in New Jersey and Connecticut. Beginning in December 1950, she gave birth to her four children—sons Edward and Walter, daughter Deborah, and son Michael—over the next six years and 13 days. In 1962, she and her husband decided to accept her father’s offer to join the Susquehanna Glass Company and Nan and her family returned to the Lancaster area. Within a year she was engaged in developing the glass company’s retail operations, which soon became an important profit center. In 1975, she became President of Susquehanna Glass Company, a position she held for the next 23 years, retiring at age 75. In retirement, Nan nurtured a love of travel and summer days on the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. For over 30 years, her Carriage House in downtown Lancaster was the venue for frequent social gatherings for her multitude of friends as well as fundraisers for candidates of her beloved Democratic Party. She was a founding member of Women United for Good Government, the WUGGs, a group that supports Democratic candidates in local politics. A supporter of local artists, she was an avid collector who frequented local art auctions. She continued to play bridge until the week before her death. Nan remained an intellectually engaged woman and avid reader committed to political debate and the status of women in all areas of American life. Nan was fiercely devoted to her family and took enormous pride in the accomplishments of her sons, her daughter, and their children. Her greatest sorrow was the death of her daughter, Deborah, in a hiking accident in 2005. She was an adoption social worker in New Jersey. Nan is survived by her three sons and their wives as well as seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her eldest son Edward Rowen is retired from Ball Aerospace and lives with his wife Susan Short in Boulder, CO. Walter Rowen is the third-generation owner and president of Susquehanna Glass and lives with his wife Catherine in Lancaster. His daughter Kathryn Rowen Martin and her twin sons Blake and Kaden live in Louisville, KY. Walter and Catherine’s sons Scott and Jamie both reside in North Carolina. Scott and his wife Keelan have two daughters, Blair and Alice. Paul Arsenault, the husband of Nan’s late daughter Deborah, lives in Media, PA. Their daughter Anna lives in New York, and son Eriq lives in West Chester, PA. Michael Rowen, the owner of Michael’s Motor Cars, resides with his wife Molly in Lancaster. Michael’s daughter Nikki Wible resides with her husband Jeremy and children Sam and Grace in Lock Haven, PA. His younger daughter Sophie Rowen lives in Philadelphia. Michael’s stepsons Austin and Connor Fink live in Lancaster and Germany respectively. A celebration of Nan’s life will be held at The Groffs Family Funeral Home, 528 W. Orange Street, Lancaster, PA on Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 1:00 p.m. The family will receive friends beginning at 12:00 Noon. Private interment in Mount Bethel Cemetery, Columbia, PA. Memorial contributions in Nan’s honor may be made to Planned Parenthood, 31 S. Lime Street, Lancaster, PA 17602 or Lancaster Creative Factory at ColumbiaCreativeFactory.org.