Donna Coty

Donna Lynn Coty, 60, of Hancock, NH – a well-loved caregiver to countless patients in the Monadnock Region -- died September 6, 2021, at home, after a brief illness.

She was born April 22, 1961, in New Bedford, MA, to Robert and Emily Steele and attended public schools in Dartmouth, MA.

Donna earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at the University of Rhode Island and soon began a lifelong career in nursing, which included work as a traveling nurse, on assignment to Intensive Care Units at hospitals in need across the country, as an ICU nurse at Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough, and more than two decades providing in-home care with New England Life Care.

Since 2017, she had been coordinator of the simulation laboratory for the Keene State College Nursing Program.

Donna was part of an extensive community of nursing professionals in the region and was known as “a healer, a great comforter, a true confidant and a genuine soul,” in the words of a close friend. “It was much more than a job.”

She fell in love with Steven Coty in 1990 and they were married in 2002.

Personally, Donna was “a live wire, passionate and loved her kids full-on,” said another friend. This led to major family trips every summer to national parks across the country for hiking, camping and s’mores by the campfire.

Donna is survived by her husband, Steven; her son, Jamison, and daughter, Jocelyn, of Hancock; her father, Robert Steele, of Dartmouth, MA; her brother, Robert Steele Jr., and his wife, Torey, of Dartmouth; her sister, Susan, and her husband, Bruce Carlson of Wareham, MA. She was predeceased by her mother, Emily Steele, and an unborn son, Graham.

Contributions may be made in memory of Donna Coty to a scholarship to be established in her name at Keene State College, 229 Main St., MS-2701, Keene, NH 03431.

A celebration of Donna’s life will be held October 23, 2021 at 1:00 PM, outdoors at the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock.

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