Page created by: Amanda Koellhofer

Nancy Lee Bosak Neihart, 74, peacefully passed away on December 27, 2021, in Austin, Texas. She was surrounded with love and in the presence of her husband of 48 years, Gregory Alan Neihart, and children Amanda Perry Neihart Koellhofer and Jaron Gregory Neihart.

Nancy was born on October 17, 1947 in Detroit, Michigan to Virginia Perry and Frank H. Bosak. She shared fond memories of growing up on Nine Mile Road in Novi, Michigan with her siblings. She especially loved Sunday dinners, mastering the art of pie making with her mom, swimming in the lake with her dad, skating on the frozen pond, enjoying copious amounts of books, working at Guernsey Farms Dairy and graduating from Northville HS with honors. Her favorite music, Motown, came from her Detroit-suburb roots and was the soundtrack of all our family car rides.

Post high school she graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in History and English and accepted a job as a flight attendant for United Airlines after stretching the truth in her job interview that she had flown before (she hadn’t!). She loved adventure and travel and often told stories of how she and her friends would save up just enough to hop a flight and travel the world. She took her parents on multiple trips, including back to her dad’s home, Croatia, and always claimed her favorite place to travel was Greece.

In 1973, Nancy met and married Greg on their third date! They met in Norfolk, Virginia, at a basketball tournament where Greg was playing and Nancy was visiting with friends. At the time, Nancy was living in Elk Grove Village, Illinois and Greg was stationed at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Beeville in Texas. Post-ceremony they drove south to San Antonio to start their lives together. Soon after, they moved to the suburbs of Dallas-Fort Worth where Nancy continued her career as a flight attendant and Greg as an air traffic controller, and they decided to add kids to the mix.

Taking a short break when her children were born, Nancy started a second career in advertising/marketing at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper in 1982. She launched the PIE (partners in education) program benefitting local schools at the paper and was well-respected by her colleagues and clients. She retired in 1998 as her recently diagnosed Parkinson’s Disease made her re-prioritize her life with her new physical limitations. She found joy in her retirement by moving with Greg to Sun City, Georgetown, TX and expanding her research into her family genealogy. Nancy also enjoyed having both her children, Amanda and Jaron, living nearby in Austin as they started families of their own. She enjoyed road trips to Civil War battlefields and even climbed to the top of Little Round Top at Gettysburg where her 3x great-grandfather was wounded in July 1863. She volunteered and advocated for Parkinson’s research via the Michael J. Fox foundation and the Parkinson’s Action Network (PAN). Nancy loved playing Scrabble, any trivia game, gardening, quilting, and crafting.

Nancy joins in Heaven her parents, Virginia Perry and Frank H. Bosak, siblings Edythe Anne Bosak Herrmann, Frank Howard Bosak, James Michael Bosak, Robert Dennis Bosak, and niece and nephews Anne Marie Herrmann Bernay, James Gordon Bosak and Kyle Andrew Whittington. She is survived by and will live on through Greg, Amanda and Jaron as well as son-in-law Daniel Koellhofer, daughter-in-law Elizabeth Neihart, the lights of her life - her grandchildren - Henrik and Caleb Koellhofer and Emily and Oliver Neihart, siblings Susan Bosak Stine, Virginia Bosak Whittington, and Stephen Bosak, nieces and nephews Karen Shipley, Paul Herrmann, Jr., Nancy Beth Mueller, Frank Bosak, Brian Whittington and Douglas Stine, as well as her Chums, Fly Girls, Bunco Group and many, many friends.