Lifelong Cutchogue resident Nancy A. Pester passed away on October 11, 2016, at her home in Cutchogue. She was 60 years old.
Born in Greenport Hospital on November 25, 1955, she was the daughter of William S. Midgley Jr. and Jean (Dickerson) Midgley. Nancy graduated Southold High School in 1973 and SUNY Farmingdale, Phi Theta Kappa in 1977.
She graduated Southold High School in 1973 and SUNY Farmingdale, Phi Theta Kappa in 1977.
Nancy worked for 15 years for the Roy H. Reeve Insurance Agency, two years for Riverhead Building Supply accounts payable department, eight years for Burt’s Reliable and Suffolk Security, and then entered what she called her “dream job” with NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision as a Correction Officer.
Nancy was a member of the Mattituck Gun Club, the Southold Griswold Terry Post American Legion auxiliary, the Town of Southold Affordable Housing Advisory Committee and the Greenport Skate Board Project.
Nancy opened her first martial art school in 1981. The school moved several times until it found a home in Southold. Nancy had been promoted to the rank of Shihan – a 7th-degree black belt and the highest rank you can achieve in the United States. She was nominated into the Martial Art Hall of Fame and the Martial Art Hall of Honor.
Nancy was an avid horseback trail rider, target shooter, dirt bike trail rider, bird hunter, Adirondack High Peaks mountain-climber and gardener.
Nancy is survived by her husband, Walter E. Pester, her children Clifford Bodenstein of Cutchogue and Danielle Nuhfer of Peconic, her granddaughter Julie Starr Bodenstein and her sister Dorothy (Charles) Baxter of West Danville, Vermont.
Visitation will be held on Saturday, October 15 from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Coster-Heppner Funeral Home in Cutchogue. A service will begin at 11 a.m. Burial will follow at the Southold Presbyterian Cemetery.
Memorial donations may be made to the Southold American Legion Scholarship Fund or the Cutchogue Fire Department Scholarship Fund.
