Dana Laird, 1966-2002

Dana Laird, an academic, a world traveller, a spiritual searcher, and a woman who reveled in her strong, well-trained body, died in a bicycle accident on 2 July 2002. Dana was born in Philadelphia, PA but her family moved to Dallas, TX when she was young. By the time she graduated as valedictorian from Highland Park High School in 1984 Dana was a proud Texan. Dana went to college at Princeton University where she majored in Religion. Following graduation she embarked on a life of travel and learning that most people would envy. She taught English in Japan for a year, and after returning to the US decided to pursue graduate education at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, where she received her Masters degree in 1994. The same year, she married a fellow student, Kenji Nakano.

For the last several years Dana has lived and worked in Cambridge, pursuing her Ph.D at Fletcher. The topic of her dissertation was to be the role of American women missionaries in Meiji-era Japan. The topic brought together her love of travel in Asia, her knowledge of Christianity, and her fierce desire to illuminate the role of women in history.

Dana travelled extensively and intrepidly. She found herself in Tiananmen Square during the uprising there, and left China via the trans-Siberian Railway. At school she participated in Fletcher-sponsored Asia-Pacific seminars in Russia, Mexico, and Japan. In 2000, Dana spent two months travelling through India and Bangladesh.

She loved the speed and physicality of her body. She enjoyed running, biking, hiking, swimming, skiing, climbing - any sport that allowed her to revel in the outdoors, listen to the pounding of her own heart, and compete against her own limits. She was an active member of the Cambridge Running Club, and ran marathons in New York, Vermont, Dallas and Boston. She kayaked along the coast of Massachusetts and Maine and undertook a two-week solo kayak trip in Alaska.

Dana loved music and sang with the Ambassachords, Voiceworks, and most recently the Boston Women’s Rainbow Chorus. Music lifted her soul, and you could see it in the way she leaned in and smiled through every line of every song she performed.

Dana touched many people deeply. Her enthusiasm and talent for physical activity challenged our bodies. Her intelligence and wit enriched our minds. Her personal quest for understanding and meaning in life touched our souls. Body, mind, and soul. Dana Laird was loved, in all of her complexity. Today we are celebrating her life. We will miss her more than words will ever convey.

Dana Laird, in a letter written on 9 August 1999, before a two-week solo kayak trip in Alaska:
"Right now I find myself, interestingly, empty of fears or expectations or even thoughts to ponder. It’s a stillness that has been rare for me, and I don’t mind it. Perhaps it’s an appropriate quiet of the soul with which to head out on my trip. ... we may need simply to be still and let truth come to us as it will. The hope ... is that there does exist a truth, and goodness, and meaning. What odd and wonderful creatures we are that we have such desires."

[The above text is reproduced from the program for Dana's memorial service, held at Tufts on July 27, 2002]



Shrine for Dana on Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, July 2002.