Nadine "Nan" Dietz

Nov 12, 1936 -

Aug 8, 2022

Nadine "Nan" Gilfillan Dietz, 85, passed away peacefully in her home on Aug. 8, 2022. She was born on Nov. 12, 1936, in Coquille, Ore., to Marcella Joan Swanson and Jesse "Demps" Gilfillan.

She grew up as the eldest of four daughters and attended Port Orford High School in Oregon, graduating in 1954. Although Port Orford remained dear to her, Nan was not destined for life in a rural town and yearned to travel. The first in her family to go on to higher education, she graduated from Good Samaritan School of Nursing in Portland, Ore. She then traveled across the country by train to take her first job at the National Institute of Health in the Mental Health Research Clinic in Bethesda, Md. Nan then joined the Air Force as a First Lieutenant and served in Japan, and later Tuscon, Ariz., ultimately leaving the Air Force as a Second Lieutenant. While in Fukuoaka, Japan, at Itazuke Air Force Base, Nan met a handsome young Captain in the Air Force, Dr. David Dietz, whom she married in Port Orford on Feb. 8, 1964. Nan loved her time serving our country in the United States Air Force, but discharged from service to be a wife and a mother. Nan and Dave moved to Palo Alto, Calif., for Dave to complete his surgical residency at Stanford University and then headed north to Alaska in 1967, settling in Anchorage.

Nan was an active member of Saint Anthony's Catholic Church for over 50 years. Even as a busy mother, she was very active in her community and had many volunteer obligations. Her children fondly remember helping her every week prepare 500 sandwiches in her home for the Brother Francis Shelter. For many years she managed Dr. Dietz' surgical practice, as well as was his office nurse. Nan had a knack for being an business woman: she started, built up and sold three successful businesses. The first was the first medical transcription company in Alaska. She then created Medical Office Management Services, and later started the first medical coding company in Alaska. She and Dave both happily retired in 1999.

Nan loved to travel, and she and Dave traveled all over the world. She also loved a good party and was a spectacular cook. She got her private pilot's license when her children were young, even having her own Maul wheel airplane in the early years, as she wasn't as comfortable flying Dave's helio on floats. She loved skiing, fishing, hunting and flying. She was a master gardener and was even featured in Readers Digest in 1972 for her greenhouse. She may not have been born in Alaska, but she was a true Alaskan. She loved to play bridge and in her later years, Nan's Nook was very dear to her, meeting at her house until the pandemic started. She cherished the resumption of post-COVID Nan's Nook in July 2022, just shortly before her passing.

Nan is survived by her children, Joan Pellegrini (husband Tony), Susie Dietz and Michael Dietz (wife Michelle); seven grandchildren; and two remaining sisters, Linda Gilfillan and Susan Doyle. Nan's family is especially grateful to Wendy Kohniak, Morris Coyle and Steve Dougherty for checking in on her in her later years as she continued to live independently in her home on Wesleyan Drive. Nan was preceded in death by her parents; her husband of 59 years, David Dietz, M.D.; daughter, Mary Louise; and sister, Darlene Reardon.

The family invites family and friends to join them on Aug. 30, 2022, at 7 p.m., for a funeral Mass at St. Anthony's Catholic Church, 825 Klevin Street in Anchorage, with reception following in the hall downstairs will be catered by Cherie Jordan, (Saucy Sisters). Please join us for a proper martini in Nan's honor. Burial will be a private spreading of her ashes, along with Dave's, their daughter Mary and their beloved lab, Sacajawea, in the waters of Lake Clark near Port Alsworth, Alaska, where the Dietz's have had a cabin since the early 1970s.