News release
Nancy Pollock Coulter, 80, the 2009 Santa Clarita Valley Woman of the Year and longtime SCV American Cancer Society volunteer, died last week.
Coulter, a 56-year resident of the SCV, died of a heart attack.
She was known for her more than two decades of volunteer work with the SCV ACS, as well as volunteer efforts with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, SCV Chamber of Commerce and Providence Medical Center.
Coulter also volunteered for the PTA and was a Girl Scout leader.
She was recognized for her volunteer work in the SCV with the 2009 SCV Woman of the Year award and the 2018 Carmen Sarro Community Service Award by the Zonta Club of SCV.
“Nancy Coulter was an amazing, caring, helpful, committed, generous woman, always there to help people and always working for the greater good,” Santa Clarita Councilwoman Laurene Weste said in a news release. “It was a blessing for me to have known her. She led the way to help people understand and get involved in the fight against cancer.”
Coulter was born Jan. 9, 1944, in Chicago and was adopted as an infant. She grew up in Downers Grove, Illinois.
She met her husband of 51 years Cameron Coulter when they were neighbors in Canyon Country.
Among her many accomplishments was serving as SCV ACS president nine times.
“Losing Nancy is such a loss for our community and for all of us on the Man and Woman of the Year committee,” Joyce Carson, 2001 Woman of the Year, said in the release. “She was such a deserving SCV Woman of the Year. And she was such a warrior with the American Cancer Society. I first met her as an employee of the Sulphur Springs School District where she was a wonderful librarian to the children of Valley View Elementary School.”
Coulter was chair of the first SCV Chamber Health and Wellness Fair. She received recognition from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and a Special Recognition Award from the SCV Chamber.
She served on the Henry Mayo Cancer Committee three years where she was instrumental in the committee receiving the Outreach and Education Programs Commendation from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer in 2006.
Coulter served as the ACS representative to the Providence Woman to Woman Health Care Professionals’ Group and worked to organize and set up the Providence Cancer Information Room in the SCV Cancer Center.
Coulter was named four times as SCV ACS Volunteer of the Year. Her most recent award was being named as the SCV American Cancer Society Volunteer of the Decade.
She began her volunteer work with the Santa Clarita ACS after her daughter Heather Warrick was diagnosed with cancer. Warrick died in 2013 after a 19-year battle with breast cancer.
Coulter is survived by her husband Cameron, son Scott Clelland (Missy), daughter Dawn Poirier (Al), grandchildren Hayden Clelland (Laura), Alexis Anninos, Madison Benveniste (Neil), Kennedy Poirier, Lincoln Poirier and Landon Poirier and great-grandchildren Brooklyn Benveniste and Ford Benveniste.
“She wasn’t just an incredible mother, wife and grandmother; she was an absolute pillar of our community,” her granddaughter, Madison, said in the release. “Heavily involved in the American Cancer Society, SCV Woman of the Year winner, chair of countless community fundraisers, Zonta award winner and too many others to list. More importantly, she was truly an amazing person and friend. She touched so many lives, making every single person she met feel genuinely loved and special.”
A celebration of Coulter’s life is scheduled to be held 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at the Hyatt Regency Valencia, 24500 Town Center Drive, Valencia.
