UMaine combines honors for community trailblazers on International Women’s Day
Nancy Fritz | Maine Women’s Hall of Fame
Nancy Fritz started working her first job at age 14. Five years later, she was married and had her first child. Growing up, Fritz learned if she wanted to buy something beyond basic necessities, she had to work for it. She adopted the opinion that anyone could get what they need in life by maintaining a job and held that opinion until she learned equal opportunity doesn’t exist in employment or education.
“My work experiences and volunteer efforts, particularly with people who are unhoused, have focused on helping others achieve basic stability in order to have access to the privileges many of us take for granted,” said Fritz.
The University of Maine will recognize her contributions to society on International Women’s Day, March 8 by inducting her into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame.
For six years, Fritz served as the Director of Homeless Initiatives in the cabinet of former Maine Gov. John Baldacci. She chaired the Statewide Homeless Council, directed the Homeless Department at Maine State Housing Authority and was a founding member of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition, which formed in 2000.
Much of Fritz’s work was also devoted to helping victims of domestic violence. Because of her own upbringing, she knows how it can impact a home — turning what should be a sanctuary into a place of fear.
It wasn’t until a personal revelation that Fritz turned her focus toward domestic violence awareness. A woman of faith, Fritz studied at Bangor Theological Seminary. While being ordained into the ministry, she said a speaker she held in high esteem described her as ethical and honest.
“I knew that I was not living up to this description; I was living a lie,” said Fritz. “The very next day I began telling my secret to my former husband, my friends and colleagues — that I had come to understand myself as a lesbian.”
Following that truth, she joined an activist group and helped start the Maine Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance, now known as Equality Maine, in the early 1980s.
Because of the challenges she faced working in the church at that time, she shifted toward community ministry. While working toward earning her Master of Divinity from the seminary and bachelor’s degree in human development from UMaine, Fritz started volunteering as an advocate for families experiencing domestic violence.
She later served as executive director of the Family Violence Project in Augusta, The Children’s Center in Augusta and the Coastal Community Action Program in Rockland. She also strengthened the Maine Coalition Against Domestic Violence into a more sustainable and reliable resource for women across the state.
Her other work expanded the definition of healthcare in the state of Maine, as well as its benefits to children, families and homeless individuals. Fritz has been an advocate for furthering opportunities in education and for equality, believing that everyone has worth, dignity and ability to change.
Despite her reputation as a social justice warrior, her friends and family know her as a humble woman with four generations of homemaking knowledge and walls decorated with patchwork quilts.
Contact: Ashley Yates; ashley.depew@umaine.edu