Nancy R. Turner (1938–2018)
Nancy R. Turner was the founding president of LALH. After earning a BA at Smith College, Turner worked as a community volunteer in Rochester, New York, for fifty years before moving to New York City in 2004. She was a past board member and vice president of the Garden Club of America and an emerita member of several Rochester cultural organizations including George Eastman House Museum, Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester, Genesee Country Village and Museum, Hochstein Music School, and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
While living in Pittsford, New York, Turner and her late husband, Richard L. Turner, restored their c. 1840 Greek Revival house and worked with landscape architect Fletcher Steele to design a garden surrounding it, the last garden of Steele’s career. With her four children, Turner founded the Viburnum Foundation to fund programs relating to historic preservation and literacy.