Ana Maria Galvin

Ana Maria (Nina) Galvin, 82, died peacefully on Nov. 19, 2015, at her home in Stowe.

She was born in Rosario, Argentina, graduated with honors in English literature from a university in Buenos Aires, and then traveled to UMass-Amherst, where she earned master’s degrees in English literature and in U.S. history and served as a teaching assistant in both the Spanish and history departments.

She also met James Galvin of Wakefield, Mass., a fellow student of history and the love of her life. They married, and spent a year teaching history and English to middle and high school students in Torreon, Mexico. They then lived in Buenos Aires, where her only daughter, Colleen, was born in 1960.

She returned to Amherst, taught at both UMass and Amherst College, and became an assistant professor in the Spanish department at UMass, where she touched innumerable lives before she retired in 1995. She taught Spanish grammar and conversation, including an advanced course discussing current events in Spanish, during the turbulent years of the Vietnam War.

As adviser to the Spanish Club, she hosted frequent culinary and musical Latin American events for her students in her home in Granby, Mass. She initiated a field study course in Springfield, Mass., where her students used their Spanish to work directly with the Latin American community there.

She demanded academic excellence, but also cared about her students individually, and they knew it. To this day, family members hear vignettes about how she affected their lives.

On weekends, she enjoyed downtime with her family in Stowe. She loved cross-country skiing at Trapp Family Lodge, and celebrated each successful trek to the cabin there with fervor.

On retirement in 1995, she and Jim moved to Stowe permanently. Soon after, she started a second successful career in editing Spanish/English translations. Her grandchildren, Robert and Samantha, spent many weeks and weekends in Stowe, hiking, skiing, learning Spanish and hearing the traditional family stories that will be a part of them forever.

Nina loved her family fiercely, and her adoptive country passionately.

Survivors include her husband, James E. Galvin of Stowe; and her daughter and son-in-law, Colleen and Chris Guiry, and her two grandchildren, J. Robert and Samantha Guiry, of Mason, N.H.

A funeral Mass will be said in the spring at Blessed Sacrament Church in Stowe.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Vermont Foodbank at vtfoodbank.org or by mail at 33 Parker Road, Barre, VT 05641.