Nancy M. Wade [1927-2014]; Entrepreneur devoted to family, volunteer work

6/11/2014

Nancy M. Wade, 87, who addressed her business ventures and volunteer work with industry, died Monday in Hospice of Northwest Ohio in Perrysburg Township.

She had a stroke, her son Tim said.

She lived independently at home — Ottawa Hills in the spring and fall; Boca Raton, Fla., in the winter, and the family summer place in Onekama, Mich. Yet rarely was she alone, her son said.

“Most of her life the last 20 years was dedicated to spending time with her family,” her son said.

Mrs. Wade and her friend Martha Schomburg bought Kaleidoscope, a needlework shop on North Reynolds Road, in 1973. About four years later, they opened a second shop at Peddlers’ Alley in Waterville.

Her father, Robert Mikesell, was an investment banker and “a very aggressive businessman,” her son said. “So she was born and raised with that fire in her belly and wanted her own business.”

Mrs. Wade operated Kaleidoscope into the early 1990s. She also made needlepoint kneelers for St. Michael’‍s in the Hills Episcopal Church in Ottawa Hills and for St. John by-the-Lake Episcopal Church in northwest Lower Michigan.

“It was a small cottage industry, but it certainly was her passion,” her son said.

Mrs. Wade was a board member and deputy chairman of volunteers for the American Red Cross’ Greater Toledo Area Chapter. After disasters, she assembled teams of volunteers to respond. As a member of the local Red Cross board, she represented Toledo at national conventions. She was a member of the board at Sunset House, which began as a residence for elderly women and where her mother was a volunteer leader, and volunteered at Toledo Hospital.

She was born March 1, 1927, to Gladys and Robert Mikesell. She was a graduate of Ottawa Hills High School, attended Bradford Junior College, and received a degree from Mount Vernon College in Washington. She spent summer breaks from college operating, with a friend, a daycare center for 3- and 4-year-olds at the high school. She later taught preschool at Maumee Valley Country Day School.

She and George S. Wade married Sept. 16, 1949. He died Sept. 23, 2002.

Surviving are her daughters Debbie Wade and Amy Degucz; sons, George S. “Tim” and Robert Wade; nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Services will be private. Arrangements are by the Walker Funeral Home. The family suggests tributes to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Toledo or the American Red Cross in Toledo.

Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.