Nancy Kittle

Nancy Kittle, known for her support of non-profit organizations committed to improving the environment, the arts and promoting the causes of Native Americans, died on March 9, 2020. She was 89 and a resident of Corte Madera.

Born in Santa Barbara, Nancy was the only child of Grace Meeker Lloyd and Francis Vernon Lloyd. Her father died in 1935 when she was 5. Nancy attended Miss Branson’s School in Ross, before attending Scripps College and later graduating from Sarah Lawrence College. In subsequent years, she obtained MA degrees in Biology and Anthropology from, respectively, San Francisco State University and the University of Arizona.

After completing her studies, Nancy married Jonathan (Jake) Kittle who was raised in Marin County. They became cattle ranchers and eventually bought a ranch in Wyoming that supported 2,000 head of cattle. However, the isolated life on the ranch for Nancy was not only hard work managing the kitchen and living quarters, but ranch life did not provide the intellectual stimulus she sought. Nancy ultimately returned to Santa Barbara and ended her marriage in divorce. Nancy was truly a “Renaissance” woman with many intellectual and varied interests that ranged from classical music, (she played the flute), the SF Symphony and theatre, to Native American Indians, photography as an art form, the ecology of San Francisco Bay, bird watching, gardening and traveling. An avid hiker, backpacker and camper, her frequent trips included exploring the Sierras in California and the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. In the month of August, she would typically be found in her beloved Jackson Hole cabin.

During the 1990’s, Nancy became interested in photography and took classes at the San Francisco Art Institute. She chose a Hasselblad camera for shooting black and white landscapes and portraits. Her most accomplished work representing the best of her legacy was published in The Sierra Club Book “Legacy”, with a text by John Hart, in which she showcases 50 photographic portraits of prominent people in the San Francisco Bay Area who made major contributions to protect the environment during the past one hundred years. Three years later, in 2009, she produced and contributed the photographic portraits of Native leaders included in a book entitled “Restoring Native Homelands”, a Ten Year Anniversary Project Gallery published by The Tribal & Native Lands Program of The Trust for Public Land.

Nancy was predeceased by her 3 half-brothers: Francis V. Lloyd, Jr of South Yarmouth, MA, Ambrose Coghill Cramer

III of Charlottesville, VA and Neville Murray Joselyn Cramer of Montecito, CA and will be missed by many loving nieces and nephews, extended family and friends.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to The Sierra Club Foundation, The Trust for Public Land (Tribal and Native Land Program), or any other environmental non-profit organization.