One Minute With...Nancy Gorrell
By Libby Barsky
Feb. 15, 2008

Name: Nancy Gorrell

Occupation: High School creative writing and English teacher in Morristown

Address: Bridgewater

Family: Married for 40 years to Joe, a health attorney listed in NJ Monthly Magazine's NJ Top Lawyers for past 10 years who is with the firm of Wolfblock of Roseland. Two daughters: Sara Gorrell Brenner, a senior consultant at Community Wealth Ventures, Washington, D.C. who is married to Guy Brenner, an attorney and lives in McLean, Va.; and Elizabeth, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania who lives in Bedminster. Sisters Susan, is a psychiatrist who is married to attorney Charles Roistacher with whom she has two children, Amy and Lee, and lives in Bethesda, Md., and Debbie Kravit, a speech pathologist who is married to Bill Kravit, with his family's insurance company, and lives with their three children, Micheal, Emily and JJ in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Parents, Lillian and Robert Schwartz, live in Morristown and Boyton Beach, Fla.

Community activities: Past president of Temple Sholom Bridgewater. Chair of Temple Sholom's Board of Education and Bikkur Cholim. Past president of the Jewish Family Service Board and board member for 10 years. Lifetime member of the National Council of Jewish Women and Sisterhood of Temple Sholom. Wrote a history, the "Book of Memories," for the 40th anniversary of Temple Sholom. Presently writing a history of the Jewish community of Somerset with Al Levine and Avis Weeks.

Hobbies: Lap swimming at the JCC (in the 50-miler club); golfing, collecting logo golf balls; playing bridge, studying films, going to theater, opera, reading and writing about everything and anything.

Self-portrait: "I am a lifetime learner, I love learning new things and expressing my creativity in multiple ways. I write poetry, memoir, essays, educational articles, books and I love to cook homemade soups. There is always a pot on in my house."

Motto: "There's a silver lining in every cloud." It is a cliché, but I try to look for the good in all people and in all of life's tragedies. If I can't see the good immediately, I try to imagine its possibility and pray for the patience to recognize it when it miraculously appears."

Greatest accomplishment: "Being a good mother. It's a delight as well as constant challenge. Professionally, I received the N.J. State Teacher of the Year in 1992 and N.J. Language Arts Teacher of the Year in 2001."

Bad Habits: "Writing poems in my head while I drive and suddenly finding myself in strange places."

Favorite TV Show: "High-definition nature shows on PBS or Discovery with my favorites like Planet Earth, National Geographic and NOVA."

Favorite food: "Blueberry pie and soup of any kind."

Best childhood memory: "Summer vacations with my grandparents and family in the Adirondack Mountains when I was growing up. We lived each summer as an extended family in a bungalow by various lakes, Saranac, Schroon, Colby and Mirror Lake. I spent long days on the lakes fishing with my grandfather. He taught me to row a boat, start and steer the 2½-horsepower motor, troll for fish, skin and eat the fish I caught and to love and respect nature."

People don't know that I... "Climbed Mt. Washington and the entire Presidential Mountain range the summer of my junior year in high school. I backpacked and camped outside for a month as part of Boston University's Camp Sargeant Program."

Last book I read: "Verse and Universe: Poems about Science and Mathematics" edited by Kurt Brown and "Einstein: His Life and Universe" by Walter Isaacson. It's amazing how Einstein used visualized 'thought experiments' to develop his revolutionary theories. For example, he tried to picture what it would look like to ride along side a light beam. …poetry in the hands of the world's greatest scientist unlocking the mysteries of the universe. I'm in the process of writing a book on 'Teaching Poetry Writing Through the Eyes of Science.'"

The biggest asset in the local Jewish communities: "All efforts to unite Jews of every affiliation as well as the unaffiliated in Jewish learning, practice and community. The JCC is the single most important effort to unite us and give us a sense of a wider community beyond our temples. I also applaud the Jewish Life Program that offers us the opportunity to take classes with rabbis of all affiliations.

The biggest problem in the local Jewish communities: "Facilitating cooperation and collaboration among all the Jewish organizations and developing new leadership from the younger generations."

If I had more time: "I'd like to take a trip to find all the rainbows in the world."