1945 - 2022
Nancy Elizabeth Taylor Farel of Boulder died on Jan. 9, 2022 after an eight-year battle with Alzheimer’s.
She was 76. Nancy was born on Aug. 7, 1945 in Bozeman, Montana and adopted at birth by Ethleen Muriel (Ryan) Taylor and William Richard Taylor. A very loved only child, she was raised in Anaconda, Billings and Deer Lodge, Mont., where her father served as an attorney and district judge. Nancy enjoyed horseback riding growing up and as her Alzheimer’s progressed told many stories about her youthful adventures with horses. After graduating from Powell County High School in 1963, she went to the University of Colorado Boulder, where she graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a teaching certificate. She was a talented artist, particularly in watercolor and pottery, and enjoyed her time as a student art teacher at Casey Junior High School and Baseline Junior High School. She met the love of her life, Charles A. Farel, in January 1969, on a blind date at a dinner party orchestrated by their respective bosses (who were married to one another).
It was truly love at first sight and after a six-month courtship, Nancy and Charlie married at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Boulder on July 12, 1969. They welcomed their daughter Alexis (Lexie) Elizabeth Farel on Oct. 21, 1973. A few years later, Charlie had the good fortune to be given a one-year overseas assignment with IBM in Southampton, England. While living there, they traveled extensively in Europe, where Nancy collected the prized antique glass citrus reamers she proudly displayed on her kitchen wall. When Lexie was young, Nancy enjoyed being a stay-at-home mom, school-homeroom mom, Girl Scout troop leader, dance mom and swim team mom. She and Charlie were incredibly supportive parents and attended every one of Lexie’s competitions and activities. In 1982, Nancy started a color consulting and image styling business, which evolved into Nancy Taylor Farel and Associates. It was a perfect career that maximized all her strengths: a keen eye for color, incredible artistic style and her desire to help people feel great and look their best.
She had a tremendous impact on the clients and businesses that she worked with, creating individual color palettes based on each one’s unique coloring and teaching them how to best to use color ourselves (aka The Talk). She also choreographed fabulous fashion shows, hosted private shopping events with stores, worked in many, many closets, shopped endlessly for her clients and selected the perfect eyeglasses for all. People came from all over the world to work with her. Nancy served as a board member of Fashion Group International, which took her on travels across the U.S., and to Australia, London, and France. She was not only an incredibly talented stylist, but also became life-long friends with many of her clients. You could tell who she worked with because they were always the best dressed in the room.
Nancy, a talented chef, and Charlie, a fantastic bartender, loved entertaining friends and Charlie’s StorageTek business associates at their stunning home. Together, they traveled the world, collected beautiful contemporary art, enjoyed opera performances, ballroom danced the nights away and shared a deep and loving relationship until their love story was cut short when Charlie passed unexpectedly in 2000. Nancy was an incredible grandma to her two grandsons, who named her Nano. She was fully devoted and extremely proud of the boys, enjoying time with them each and every day. She never missed an opportunity to be with them and, just as she and Charlie had with Lexie, attended every school event, hockey game, swim meet and water polo game. An energetic and loving grandma, she enjoyed many adventures and travels with Lexie and Linus and the boys.
Despite the challenges Nancy faced, she always remained positive and lived life with zest. She was a vibrant, caring, humorous, engaging and beautiful person and she will be deeply missed. She is survived by her daughter Alexis (Lexie) Wang, son-in-law Linus Wang, and beloved grandsons Charlie and Jamie Wang, all of Boulder. She was preceded in death by her husband, mother and father. M.P. Murphy and Associates are handling local arrangements. A celebration of life will be held at a later date due to the COVID pandemic.
