Rosemary Reynolds Nichols, a dean of performing arts at the Ross School in East Hampton in the late 1990s and early 2000s, died on Dec. 21 in Austin, Tex. The cause was ovarian cancer.
Dr. Reynolds, who was 59, “is remembered for her indelible spirit, strong and independent personality, incisive mind and wit, and compassion for others,” her family wrote.
She graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1988 and went on to Stony Brook University, where she received a master’s degree in music performance and music literature in 1993.
It was at Stony Brook that she met her future first husband, Mitch Sundet. The couple were married in Minnesota after graduation and moved to Guanajuato, Mexico, where Dr. Reynolds played principal oboe with the Filarmonica del Bajio for two years. Their daughter, Isolde, was born in March 1992 at their home there, “with the orchestra’s entire wind section in attendance,” her family wrote.
The family later moved to Lisbon, where Dr. Reynolds played in all three of the city’s major professional orchestras over a six-year period, and performed regularly in Galicia, Spain. The couple’s son, Harry, was born in Portugal in May 1994.
After seven years abroad, the family returned to the United States, and in 1998 Dr. Reynolds became first a music lecturer and then the dean of performing arts at the Ross School.
“Notably, she was the executive producer of the Sonic Convergence Millennium Concert in June 2001. The project, which was a collaboration between music students from the Ross School, the Shanghai Conservatory, and the Stockholm Conservatory of Music, was conducted by famed musician and producer Quincy Jones,” according to her family. She was a founder of the school’s visiting artist series and of Visions of the East End, a regional music series at Guild Hall that ran from 2002 to 2004.
“Her time at the Ross School propelled her career and she always looked back on her time there extremely fondly,” her family said.
She left the East End for the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin and received her doctorate in higher education there in 2007. She then worked as a dean at Blinn College in Brenham, Tex., where she met Kurt Nichols, a football coach who would become her second husband.
Dr. Reynolds went on to be dean of humanities, communications, and fine arts at Tyler Junior College, vice president of instructional affairs at Western Texas College, and executive director of institutional research at Tarrant County College. She had planned to serve as a college president and was on her way toward that goal when she had the opportunity to become a campus provost for Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma.
“Because of the challenges related to battling cancer, Rosemary decided to not take the position and resigned from Tarrant County College,” her family said.
She and her husband moved to Medina, Tex., in 2020, and were married in July 2021 after nine years together. “She cherished life with him on their beautiful property, finding joy in hiking, cooking elaborate meals, and taking motorcycle trips across Texas to places like Big Bend National Park and Galveston,” her family said. There she started a new venture, Texas Wildrose, a business selling baked goods and gourmet foods.
Born on Nov. 22, 1965, Dr. Reynolds was adopted by Jackson and Virginia Reynolds of Hobbs, N.M. She graduated from Hobbs High School, where her father was the band director and where she was a member of the thespian society. She met her biological mother, Barbara Buzbee, in 1993, and her biological father, Ernest Jacquet, in 2007.
“She maintained close, loving relationships with both her adoptive and biological families throughout her adult life,” her family said.
She is survived by her adoptive father, who lives in Okmulgee, Okla., her biological father, who lives in Newport, R.I., and her biological mother, who lives in Palm Springs, Calif.
Also surviving are her husband and her children, Isolde Sundet of Porto, Portugal, and Harry Sundet of Austin. Her mother died in 2006, and her brother, Charles (Andy) Reynolds, died in 2012.
A service was held on Saturday at Medina Community Church in Texas.
