Community Contribution

Original Source

This story is a solemn one, but I’m proud to honor a hero and a trailblazer, someone who showed great civic pride, a deep love of her home town and her family and friends. I’d like to present to you; Naugatuck’s first female police officer: Nancy Ford Nichols.
(Photo #1)

Nancy came from a well known family in Naugatuck history, reaching back over 100 years in town. Her grandfather opened Ford Pharmacy, and her father took over running the business as it passed to him in succession. The Ford name became one of those that are synonymous with our town, and the pharmacy was a part our lives for generations. It was this sense of hometown that may have helped inspire Nancy to serve Naugatuck in civic duty.

(Photo #2)

Her friends and family loved her dearly, and remember her fondly, especially her compassion, her wit and sense of humor. According to her niece, Carly Holloway:

“My aunt was a prankster, had a great sense of humor, but ultimately she cared about everything and everyone. She didn’t just help people with her job she also rescued animals, birds and cats mostly. She just wanted to care for everyone.”

A Naugatuck High School classmate of Nancy’s, Edie Hart recalls:

“I know she was kind to everyone."

Nancy’s best friend since childhood, Nancy Walsh Hufnagel also agrees that her bestie was a prankster:

“Where to begin! I could go on for days about Nancy. She had a heart of gold, she was stronger and smarter than people gave her credit for. A champion for anyone in need, a real practical joker, a true confidant… an incredible mother. She was one of a kind and I loved her dearly. Nancy was more than a friend, she was like a sister to me.”

Nancy’s kindness and sense of humor surely ran in the family. Her father William Ford, son of the founder of Ford’s Pharmacy, used to joke with the girls about their names:

“Her dad started calling us Nancy E, but I was Nancy Elizabeth and she was Nancy Ellen, so that was a bust.”

Maybe not such a bust after all, if it got the desired chuckle and created a wonderful memory. William married Mary Malone and the couple had eight children; Eileen, JoAnn, Mary, Billy, Carol, Christina, Kathy and of course Nancy.

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William Ford was born on Dec. 13, 1925 in Waterbury a son of the late Raphael E. Ford and Helen (Ahearn) Ford. He was a graduate of Naugatuck High School Class of 1943 and was class president and a member of the Cheshire Community Band and the Naugatuck Historical Society. He attended Yale University and graduated from UConn School of Pharmacy. He joined his father as owner of Ford Pharmacy in Naugatuck for 42 years. (Sadly, Ford’s – a Naugatuck icon – closed in 2020, only a few months before this article was written.) William was a U.S. Navy Veteran having fought in the invasion of the South Pacific.
(Source)
(Photo #3)

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It’s no surprise that Nancy felt a calling to civic duty and community involvement. It was handed down to her from both sides of her family. Perhaps it was Mary Malone’s side that inspired Nancy to serve as a Naugatuck Police Officer. Mary’s grandfather was a Naugatuck Police Captain in the 1930s and her father, Nancy’s grandfather, was Police Chief from 1954 to 1960.

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Chief Anthony A. Malone
(1954 - Dec 26th 1960)
Anthony Aloysius Malone was born December 31st 1898 in Naugatuck. He was the son of long time Police Captain Anthony F. Malone. Chief Malone joined the Naugatuck Police Department as a supernumerary in 1925. While he was Captain, he was the first head of the Naugatuck's Detective Bureau. Chief Malone was appointed as Chief of Police in 1954 after the retirement of Chief Gormley. He held the position as Chief of Police until his untimely death on December 26th 1960. (Source)

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It is Chief Malone’s untimely death on the day after Christmas which brings us to the second, and more tragic “first” of Nancy’s career. I deeply regret to write that Officer Nichols also suffered an untimely death, as the first female officer in Connecticut to die in the line of duty, on St. Patrick’s Day in 1991. Those two holidays will forever carry an even deeper meaning for this family.

Nancy joined the Naugatuck Police Department in 1984 and began working as a patrol officer. She was employed in the youth bureau and true to her civic mindedness, also ran fund raising efforts on behalf of the department.

Not a surprise at all from the caring, but mischievous prankster who once “parked” her horse Raisin for the night outside of her friend’s Millville Avenue apartment. Nancy began riding when she was a teenager, and it was another example of her love for animals. Her friend “Nancy E” tells the story with a bittersweet smile:

“I almost got evicted hahaha! My landlord had a strict no pets policy. One day, after we’d been out riding the horse, it got late and Nancy didn’t feel like taking him back to the barn. She had hay, etc., in her car which was parked at my apartment so she just tied Raisin up out back for the night! My landlord came by early the next morning, and he was NOT happy!”

Explaining a pet horse must have been quite difficult, but it’s certain that the other “Nancy E” sweet-talked her way out of the situation, as her friend was not forced to find a new home. In fact, it’s not the only time Raisin’s owner had assisted her friend in the new apartment. Once again, proving that kindness was a Ford family value, William would often give his daughter a bag of groceries to bring to her friend, who had just moved out on her own at 19 years of age:

"When I got my first apartment, at least once a week, Mr. Ford would send a bag of groceries with Nancy so he knew I had food.”

Everyone interviewed about Officer Nichols has repeated the same praise for her: civic pride, a strong sense of duty, compassion for children and animals, a determination to break barriers and work for justice. Nancy Walsh Hufnagel went on to tell me about some of the difficulties of breaking the glass ceiling in an era when misogyny was still openly expressed in the workplace:

“She was so proud to be a police officer, but there were challenges being a woman on the force. She NEVER let it show! She kept her cool at all times and pulled her weight with quiet dignity and went above and beyond, especially when there were children involved.”

More recently, in the years that have followed, Nancy’s fellow officers have acknowledged her service, and her efforts to promote equality. Each year a memorial is held by the department for friends and family to remember and honor her.

In 2011 Governor Dannel P. Malloy proclaimed March 17th as Nancy Nichols Day in Connecticut.

In 2015, the Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Mayor and Burgesses recorded:

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Burgess Vitale said there was a very dignified remembrance ceremony held in honor of Patrol Officer Nancy Nichols who died in the line of duty.

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In 2016, Officer Nichols’ sister Christina attended that year’s ceremony, where she was interviewed by a reporter from NBC News:

“My niece was just a baby when Nancy died and now she is here with her daughter, so it is important for all of them to be here and to remember her,” Christina DaSilva, Nichols’ sister, said. (Source)

Wearing ceremonial uniforms with a touch of St. Patty’s green, the Naugatuck officers pay a very special tribute to a trailblazer, and humanitarian. In a touching display, the department’s Color Guard hangs a flag at half mast, and then issues a final call over the loudspeaker, a call that Officer Nichols can no longer respond to:

“Dispatch to PL15… PL15 is off the air. Rest in Peace, Officer Nancy Nichols.”
(Photo #4)

In 2018, a Naugatuck Police Department press release on their web site read as follows:
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3/17/2018 - Remembering Officer Nancy Nichols
The St. Patricks day holiday is always a bittersweet day for all of us at the Naugatuck PD ... It was 27 years ago on this date that we lost Officer Nancy Nichols in the line of duty.
(Photo #5)

Officer Nichols was struck and killed by a vehicle while she was assisting a fellow officer on a traffic stop on Prospect Street (Route 68).

Please enjoy the day, be safe by drinking responsibly and please keep Officer Nancy Nichols in your thoughts today...

The remembrance was followed up with a posting of Nancy’s picture to the Naugy PD’s Facebook page. (Source)

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Upon arriving at the scene and exiting her cruiser, Nancy made her way along Route 68 to assist the Officer. A 17 year old driver traveling down Prospect Street lost control of a Buick Somerset Regal, which struck Nancy. She was rushed to Saint Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, but succumbed to internal injuries.

When her watch ended, Nancy’s badge number, PL15 (Photo #6) was retired in her honor. Thousands of officers from five states turned out for her funeral, lining up along Church Street as her casket was brought out. (Photo #7) The officers conducted a procession from St. Francis Church in downtown Naugatuck, where the funeral was held, all the way down Route 63 to St. James Cemetery off of Cross Street, where Nichols is now buried.
(Photo #8)

The Connecticut General Assembly issued a resolution expressing sympathy on the death of Police Officer Nancy Ford Nichols, (Photo #9) and today, a bridge near the scene of the accident is named after her. She is survived by one son, Todd.
(Photo #10, Video #1)

As if to serve as another reminder of Officer Nichols and her love for animals, the Naugatuck Police Department very recently added a new canine Officer who shares a “cosmic connection” with Nancy:

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Indy has a cosmic connection to the Naugatuck Police Department. His birthday is March 17, which is the same date former borough Officer Nancy Nichols was killed in the line of duty in 1991 when she was hit by a car during a traffic stop.

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(Photo #11)

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To this day, 29 years after her death, her fellow Officers, her friends, and her family cherish her memory. Her family spirit of altruism and civic duty has been proudly passed down and is demonstrated by her niece Carly Holloway, whose Naugatuck Valley Soup Kitchen delivers over 300 dinners a week to those in Naugatuck who are in need, at no cost to them. NVSK is a non profit organization supported by donations and bake sales, and the town donates a location from which they can sell their delicious products at 258 Rubber Avenue.

“Nancy E” lives on in the town she loved, in the hearts and minds of those she held dear, and for whom she served with honor and dedication.

RIP Officer Nancy Ellen Ford Nichols, 1957-1991