Joan VanDerMaelen Nagle of Provincetown died peacefully on July 8, 2025 at Seashore Point, surrounded by her children. She was 91.

Born in New Haven, Conn. on Oct. 20, 1933 to Astrid Seaquist and Gustave VanDerMaelen, Joan grew up in the Morris Cove area of East Haven. Her mother was the head cook at an East Haven nursing home, and her father owned a moving company and office furniture store in New Haven.

Joan developed an early love of the water, thanks to her father. Entering Hillhouse High School, Joan failed to make the swim team but tearfully pleaded with the coach for a sympathy spot. Within a year, Joan was competing at Nationals and won a bronze medal at the 1949 championships. She went on to study at Purdue, one of the few universities with a women’s swimming program, and graduated in 1955.

Joan’s early swimming was the start of a career in athletics and recreation. She taught in many places in southern Connecticut before moving with her husband, Alan, and four children to Jaffrey, N.H., bringing her skills and passion to a new community. She founded a swimming program in the elementary school to ensure that every child learned to swim by the end of fourth grade. She directed the Clark Memorial Pool for the Jaffrey Recreation Dept., coached field hockey at Conant High School, and held various roles at the Woodbound Inn. Joan also excelled at tennis and field hockey and inspired others with her boundless energy and love of sport.

Joan moved to Cape Cod in the mid-1980s to serve as the aquatics director at the Sandwich Community Pool. She and her daughter Patty served the Upper Cape community for about 15 years, building a swim and aquatics program for all ages. She also participated in triathlons and in 1995 raised funds for the first 250-mile AIDS Ride from Boston to New York City, which she completed with her four children.

In retirement, Joan spent six months each year in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she started a water aerobics program and dedicated hours each week to teaching swimming to children from the local orphanage, many of whom had never been in the water before. She continued to raise money for the orphanage by organizing trips to symphony performances and other destinations.

In the warmer months, Joan returned to the Outer Cape, where she continued to bring people together through her love of water. She founded a water aerobics program at Wellfleet’s Gull Pond. Her students and alums are affectionately known as “the Mermaids,” a group of more than 30 women who swim together, celebrate friendship, and raise funds for local causes.

The Mermaids gathered at Great Pond in Wellfleet for a silent remembrance of Joan on July 30.

Upon moving to the Outer Cape, Joan discovered the Provincetown Swim for Life, which quickly became her most loved event. She recruited swimmers and organized group training swims throughout the summer. Well into her 80s, Joan swam the 1.4 miles from Long Point to the Boatslip’s beach with hundreds of others, raising money for the health service organizations on the Outer Cape and finding joy in the community effort.

In 2019, she introduced the freshwater Swim for Life alternative in Wellfleet’s Great Pond.

Joan settled in Provincetown in 2020. She soon focused on the message and mission of Wellfleet’s Lily House, a home for those in need of compassionate end-of-life care. Never afraid to discuss the sacredness of the last stage of life, including her own, Joan embraced the objectives of the Lily House: to provide the space, love, and care needed for its residents to die with dignity.

Joan’s passion and spirit touched many lives in every community she was part of, said her son Chris. “She leaves with us the joy found in movement,” he said. “Find the nearest body of water and in it you’ll feel her guidance, hear her instruction.”

Joan is survived by her children, Patty Nagle of Santa Fe, N.M., James Nagle of Boston, Lynea Nagle of Warren, R.I., and Christopher Nagle of Truro; and by her four cherished grand-dogs: Sedna, Selah, Gus, and Willa.

She was predeceased by her husband, Alan Nagle.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Oct. 18, 2025 at the Chapel on the Pond in North Truro, followed by a celebration of Joan’s life at the Art School in North Truro. For more information, email [email protected].

In lieu of flowers, donations in Joan’s honor may go to the Provincetown Swim for Life and Paddler Flotilla.