Rev. Nancy H. McCarthy

The Reverend Nancy H. McCarthy, a retired Episcopal priest and resident of Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community in Asheville, North Carolina, passed away on September 10, 2026.

Nancy’s long association with St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton, Florida, began in 1964, when she joined the congregation. She later attended Virginia Theological Seminary and entered the priesthood at a time when women represented only a small minority of Episcopal priests, helping broaden the place of women in the church’s ordained ministry.

Her ministry reflected a concern for people in need, particularly children and families. At St. Gregory’s, she helped raise awareness of childhood hunger and encouraged parishioners to respond. She valued the congregation’s outreach and its place in the wider community. “We are seen as a church that responds to community needs,” she said in 2013, the year of her retirement from ministry there.

After moving to North Carolina, Nancy remained active in church and community life, including at the Cathedral of All Souls in Asheville.
Nancy was the widow of Capt. Walter R. McCarthy Jr., a U.S. Army officer and 1954 graduate of Virginia Military Institute who was killed in Vietnam on June 16, 1962. She supported fellow surviving spouses through the Western North Carolina chapter of the Military Officers Association of America. She served as the chapter’s Surviving Spouse Liaison from 2015 to 2022 and as secretary from 2017 to 2019, and continued her pastoral service as assistant chaplain.

Nancy is survived by her son, Kevin L. McCarthy, of Miramar, Florida, and her two grandchildren, Kevin McCarthy Jr. and Melissa McCarthy.

Her life brought together faith, pastoral care, and service to others—from her church community in Florida to military families and fellow residents in North Carolina.