Christine (Nowak) Nader

Christine Nowak Nader passed away Monday, August 14, 2023 after a short battle with an aggressive cancer. Daughter of Adolfine Niesner Nowak and the late Stanley Nowak, Christine was born in Hassfurt, Germany. Shortly after she emigrated to the United States with her parents. She grew up a part of the Polish community in Holyoke and later Chicopee. She was educated at Mater Dolorosa Elementary School, attended Holyoke High, and graduated from Chicopee Comprehensive High School. After graduation from Springfield Technical Community College, she began her career with Spalding International. Over her 37-year career there she served as Executive Assistant to the President. Christine was a lifelong and active parishioner of Holyoke’s Mater Dolorosa and then Our Lady of the Cross Parishes. The world will miss her keen insights into U.S. and global events drawn from her close reading of daily and weekly news publications, and books. Her compassion for people everywhere sprang from her own Polish and German families’ experiences, as well as that of her husband’s family. Easily conversant in Polish and German, she and her husband Michael traveled frequently to Germany and Poland for family visits. Christine and Michael-and on occasion her mother-enjoyed travel across the U.S., Canada, Europe as well as to the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, New Zealand, and Australia. Christine was known for her savvy style.  As her friends remarked, she had a sophisticated fashion sense and she could work a room, talking to anyone drawing them out. In her extensive travels Christine made friends all over the world. On one occasion she introduced herself to Sir Julian Fellowes, of Downton Abbey fame, in Waterloo Station, London, who then spent a pleasant half hour conversing with her. Christine leaves her husband of 42 years, Michael Nader of Windsor, CT, her mother Adolfine Nowak of Chicopee, sister Ingrid and her husband Sean Delaney of Cambridge, MA, sisters-in-law Janice Nader of Lansdale, PA, JoAnn and her husband William Jenny of Pittsburgh, PA as well as aunts, uncles and cousins in the Midwest, Germany, and Poland. Friends are invited to join her family on Friday, August 25th at Barry J. Farrell Funeral Home, 2049 Northampton Street in Holyoke for a 10:00 am gathering and prayers, and at Our Lady of the Cross Church, Holy Cross Avenue in Holyoke for a 12:00 pm Mass of Christian Burial. Burial will follow at Mater Dolorosa Cemetery in South Hadley. In lieu of flowers, friends are invited to contribute in memory of Christine to The Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield, 577 Carew Street, Springfield, MA 01104.

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