Nan McCurdy
Central 1973
Nan McCurdy graduated from Central High in 1973. She has a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in biology from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She also has a degree in pharmacy from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. She currently lives in Managua, Nicaragua.
Nan has spent most of her adult life working with the people of Nicaragua. She is the founder of Casa Baltimore-Limay, a people-to-people sistering relationship between Baltimore and San Juan de Limay, Nicaragua. She and her husband Phil moved to Limay in 1985 to facilitate delegation visits by people from Baltimore and to work in community development projects.
With her husband, Nan founded the Benjamin Linder Center in Managua in 1988, named after the young electrical engineer who brought electricity to a Nicaraguan town and was assassinated in 1987. Nan also assisted in the establishment of the Foundation for Nicaraguan War Victims in 1990. Phil passed away in 1991, but Nan continued her mission and stayed in Nicaragua with their two small children.
Nan's tireless work has impacted many in great need of help. She worked with a leprosy-infected village to improve diets, develop fertilizer projects to raise income and food production, bring dignity and better health to women and much more. She is a founder of the Women and Community, San Francisco Libre, which empowers impoverished women through education, a health program and a domestic violence prevention program.
After Hurricane Mitch and the resulting floods, Nan and her husband Miguel used flat-bottomed boats to rescue people from trees and rooftops. Her connections with the United Methodist Church allowed her to direct a building program, providing one-room concrete block houses for the town.
Continuing her work to inform people of the difficulties in Nicaragua, Nan has had articles published in The Other Side, New World Outlook and Christian Social Action. She is a radio journalist on Free Speech Radio News, a half-hour news program about the Central American people.