Nancy Brubaker Rez, BHS 1947

Nancy Brubaker Rez, the founder of Wellness Works and wife of former city manager Jim Rez, died Dec. 16, 2008 of a heart attack at her Glendale home. She was 78.

In recent years, the center at 540 W. Broadway has expanded its services to help patients with various types of illness or disease. The center was known as Alive and Well, which provided holistic health education, before it evolved into Wellness Works.

Nancy Rez and Mary Lu Coughlin founded Wellness Works, a nonprofit community health center, in 1986 to provide holistic treatments such as acupressure, chiropractic care and massage to AIDS and HIV patients. In recent years, the center at 540 W. Broadway has expanded its services to help patients with various types of illness or disease.The center was known as Alive and Well, which provided holistic health education, before it evolved into Wellness Works.

Nancy Rez and Coughlin, who met in 1984 at hospice volunteer training program, were inspired by the book "The Possible Human" and envisioned a community health center that would relieve ailments in a comfortable setting.

Nancy Rez, a graduate of Occidental College, received registered nursing training at Pasadena City College and graduated from Mt. St. Mary’s College, where she received a bachelor’s in nursing. She worked at Glendale Adventist Medical Center as an intensive care nurse and infection control nurse. As a hospital nurse, Nancy Rez often saw AIDS and HIV patients being treated differently than other patients, the center’s director, Athena Carrillo, said."It’s something that broke her heart," she said. She wanted AIDS and HIV patients to have common space where they would be welcomed and would not feel ostracized. "It was not only a place where they got treated, but it was a place where they got love," Carrillo said.

She retired five years ago as the center’s manager, but continued to volunteer.Nancy Rez was born in 1930 in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and moved to Burbank as a young girl. She graduated from Burbank High School in 1947, and later enrolled at Occidental College, where she met her husband. The two often took trips and traveled around the country. "We did a lot of things together," Jim Rez said. She was his best friend, he said.

Nancy Rez is survived by her husband, Jim Rez; her son, David Rez and his wife, Jenny, of Oakland; her daughter Peggy Beth Good and her husband, David, of Edina, Minn.; her four grandchildren, Alex and Isabella Rez, and Shannon and Kelly Good; and her dog, River.

Donations can be made to Wellness Works or a favorite charity in her memory.