Nancy Terrell Yacher was born on March 22, 1935, in McMinnville, Oregon, to Horace Clifford Terrell and Mary Margaret Newsom Terrell. Her early life was connected with Oregon's Pacific Northwest educational and civic environment.
She married Sherman L. Yacher on October 5, 1979. Her children from a previous marriage were John Tierney Steere and Robert Terrell Steere.
Yacher attended Linfield College from 1953 to 1955 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, graduating summa cum laude, from Lewis and Clark College in 1957. Lewis and Clark, founded in Portland in 1867 as Albany Collegiate Institute and later relocated and renamed, developed as a liberal-arts college with a strong emphasis on undergraduate education.
She received a Master of Arts in American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1960 as a Danforth fellow and scholar. The University of Pennsylvania, founded in Philadelphia in the eighteenth century, is one of the oldest American universities and has long combined liberal-arts education with advanced research.
Yacher later pursued postgraduate study at the University of Kansas from 1972 to 1978 as a Danforth Graduate Woman fellow. The University of Kansas, established in 1865 in Lawrence, became the state's principal public research university and a major center of higher education in the Midwest.
Yacher began her professional career with the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia, serving as a program assistant from 1957 to 1958 and again from 1960 to 1961. The committee, founded by American Quakers in 1917, undertook humanitarian, peace, and social-service work; her position placed her in an organization associated with service-oriented responses to social and international concerns.
She later developed a career in English and higher education. At the University of Kansas in Lawrence, she was an assistant instructor in the English department from 1975 to 1978 and a lecturer from 1985 to 1990. The university's English department formed part of a public research institution whose teaching and scholarship served students across the state and beyond.
Yacher was an assistant professor of English at Washburn University in Topeka from 1980 to 1988 and continued teaching there from 1993. Washburn, founded in 1865 and supported by the city of Topeka, developed as a private university offering liberal-arts and professional education. A later alumni account described her as having taught English at Washburn for twenty-five years.
Beginning in 1993, Yacher served as a board director of Innovative Learning Systems, Inc., and became its president in 1994. Her work therefore extended beyond classroom teaching into educational organization and administration. She also served on boards and committees connected with civic, environmental, literary, choral, religious-intellectual, and educational organizations in Lawrence and elsewhere.
Yacher's documented affiliations indicate an interest in the relationship between education, religion, ethics, and public life. Her participation in the Society for Values in Higher Education, the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life, and the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology placed her within organizations concerned with the intellectual and moral dimensions of higher education.
Her work in English education and her involvement with the C. S. Lewis Society of Kansas also reflect an engagement with literature as a medium for examining religious, ethical, and cultural questions.
Yacher's memberships and service activities connected her with professional associations, educational organizations, religious-intellectual groups, literary societies, and civic institutions. Her affiliations included the National Council of Teachers of English, the Society for Values in Higher Education, the International Platform Association, the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life, and the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology.
She was also a Danforth Associate from 1963 to 1975 and served on the regional selection committee of the Danforth Associates Program from 1972 to 1974. In Lawrence, she participated in organizations concerned with civil rights, foster care, environmental improvement, community childcare, music, literature, and university life.
Danforth Associate.
Danforth Associates Program , United States
1963 - 1975
Board director.
Gainesville Women Equal Civil Rights , United States
1962 - 1967
Chairman.
Lawrence Community Nursery , United States
1968 - 1969
Board director.
Lawrence Environmental Improvement Association , United States
1970 - 1972
Society for Values in Higher Education , United States
International Platform Association , United States
Association for Religion and Intellectual Life , United States
Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology , United States
National Council of Teachers of English , United States
Board director.
Trinity Foster Home , United States
1988 - 1992
Board director.
Canterbury House , United States
1989 - 1992
Board director.
Kansas University Women’s Club , United States
1995 - present
Board director from 1992 and president in 1995.
Ladies Literature League , United States
1992 - present
Board director.
Lawrence Civic Choir , United States
1993 - present
Sigma Tau Delta , United States
Chairman.
Lawrence Community Nursery , United States
1968 - 1969
Vice president.
Schwegler School Parent-Teachers Association , United States
1970 - 1971
Yacher married Sherman L. Yacher on October 5, 1979. Her children from a previous marriage were John Tierney Steere and Robert Terrell Steere.
Her professional and civic connections included the University of Kansas, Washburn University, the American Friends Service Committee, the Danforth fellowship and associates programs, and organizations devoted to religion and intellectual life, English teaching, literature, education, environmental improvement, and community service.
