Cyndi Loza

Cynthia Nelson: 1960-2007

Cynthia Nelson proved she was never someone to let anything knock her down, continuing her career as an international businesswoman while battling breast cancer since 2003.

Traveling to almost every continent, Mrs. Nelson was a global licensing director for top financial services company Standard & Poor’s. She had worked with the company for more than 11 years and was a founding director of the company’s index services.

Mrs. Nelson’s knack for closing deals helped the company grow, said her husband, Fred Nelson.

Mrs. Nelson died Monday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital from complications of breast cancer. She was 46. She was described by many as a strong-willed person. She was a “champ,” her husband said.

Born in 1960 in Evanston, the former Cynthia Denyse Collins received her undergraduate degree in business from DePaul University.

Being in and out of the hospital never kept Mrs. Nelson from work. Susan Kirshner, who had previously worked with her at Dean Witter, said Mrs. Nelson always gave 100 percent until the very end, despite having breast cancer.

“She was a role model for me and all my friends,” said her daughter Paige Nelson. “She was honestly the person who held this entire family together.”

Mrs. Nelson also is survived by another daughter, Nadya Morgan; her mother, Joyce Ammons, and her brothers, Theodore and Derrick Collins.

A memorial service will be at noon today at Cage Memorial Chapel, 7651 S. Jeffery, followed by burial in Oak Woods Cemetery.