LELAND — Leslie Nolan McCarthy, 65, of Leland, North Carolina, died on September 28, 2026, leaving behind a family and communities made immeasurably brighter by the way she lived: fully engaged, deeply generous, and always in service to others.
Raised in Bowie, Maryland, Leslie was the eldest daughter of Mary Fletcher Nolan and Nicholas J. Nolan, Sr. She graduated from the University of Maryland and built a life defined by public service, family, fierce civic engagement, and an instinctive concern for people who needed someone to notice them. Leslie was extraordinarily competent and organized, deeply intelligent, warm, generous, and passionate about the causes she believed in. She did not simply care about people in the abstract: she acted.
That was true throughout her professional life. Leslie spent more than a decade working on Capitol Hill before joining NASA, first at headquarters in Washington, D.C., and later at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. At GISS, she ultimately served as Assistant Chief for Outreach and helped communicate some of the most consequential climate science of her era to journalists and the public. She worked closely with prominent climate scientist Dr. James Hansen and became known for defending the ability of scientists and career civil servants to communicate scientific findings honestly and without political interference.
Her commitment to civic life also shaped her personal story. In 1996, while working at NASA, Leslie used six weeks of leave to volunteer for the congressional campaign of Carolyn McCarthy on Long Island. She became the candidate’s travel assistant and helped on a campaign few initially expected to win. It did. During that campaign, Leslie met Carolyn’s son, Kevin McCarthy. Leslie and Kevin married the following year, on October 24, 1997, and built their life together on Long Island, where Leslie would live for nearly three decades.
Leslie’s public service was never confined to her job. Wherever she lived, she found people who needed help and organizations doing something about it. On Long Island, she devoted countless hours to Christmas Magic, a volunteer-led nonprofit that brings holiday joy to homeless, foster, and underprivileged children. She also supported the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless and other organizations serving people in vulnerable circumstances. The causes changed with the community around her, but Leslie’s response did not: she showed up.
After retiring from federal service in 2019, Leslie moved to Leland as members of her family increasingly made North Carolina home. Retirement did not slow her down. Instead, she redirected the formidable energy she had once brought to government and public affairs toward the needs of children and families in her new community.
NourishNC became one of the clearest expressions of who Leslie was. She donated thousands of hours of her time to the organization, which works to feed children and support families experiencing food insecurity. Steve McCrossan, NourishNC’s executive director, spoke of Leslie’s tremendous generosity and commitment, sharing that she spent more time there than some members of the staff.
“Leslie wasn’t just a volunteer; she was part of the heart and soul of NourishNC,” Steve said. “She was honored as Volunteer of the Year multiple times and always showed up with an incredible commitment to our kids. Her impact goes far beyond the hours she served. It lives on in the thousands of children she helped feed, the families she helped care for, and all of us who were lucky enough to know her. She left an indelible mark on NourishNC – one that will always be part of who we are and can never be replaced.”
Leslie did not limit generosity to scheduled volunteer shifts. If she learned about a need, she wanted to solve it. When Pajama Jams once ran out of pajamas during a school distribution before every child had received a pair, Leslie immediately reached out, met the organizer at Target, and bought every size still needed so no child would go without. After that, she collected pajamas throughout the year whenever she found a good sale. On one occasion, she arrived with 99 brand new pairs. The organization called her its “Pajama Jams angel.”
She gave that way in large and small ways, with both her time and her own resources. Leslie supported Foster Pantry, Good Shepherd, The Warming Shelter ILM, Toys for Tots, and other community organizations. She regularly stocked Karma Box, one of the small free community pantries in Carolina Beach. When organizations she believed in needed financial support, she gave that, too, usually without fanfare. Her generosity was never performative. It was simply how she moved through the world.
Her family knew this better than anyone. Leslie was a devoted wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend. Kevin, Denis, and Grace were at the center of her life, and moving to North Carolina brought her closer to the family she loved. She cared deeply about where her family had come from as well as where it was going. Leslie loved genealogy and took pride in being the family historian, preserving names, stories, and connections for the generations around her and those still to come. She was also an avid reader and remained curious throughout her life.
The same instinct that drove Leslie to feed children or stock a pantry also appeared in moments so small they might otherwise have been forgotten. A neighbor in Leland remembers Leslie seeing a beautiful rainbow and immediately sending a text so the neighbor could run outside and see it, too. It is difficult to imagine a more fitting story about her. Leslie noticed things — beauty, need, injustice, opportunity — and her first instinct was to share, help, protect, or act.
If children needed pajamas, Leslie bought them. If a food pantry needed stocking, she filled it. If an organization needed hands, she gave hers. If a cause needed an advocate, she used her voice. If science needed defending, she stood up for it. And if she looked outside and saw a rainbow, she made sure someone else did not miss it.
That is the light Leslie leaves behind. Her life was not defined by one position, one organization, or one extraordinary act of generosity, but by thousands of acts of attention and service repeated over decades. She understood citizenship as participation and community as responsibility. The people and institutions around her were better because Leslie believed it was her privilege to help make them better.
Leslie was preceded in death by her mother, Mary Fletcher Nolan; her mother-in-law, former U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy; and her nephew, Nolan Muxworthy. She is survived by her husband, Kevin McCarthy; her son, Denis McCarthy; her daughter, Grace McCarthy; her father, Nicholas J. Nolan, Sr.; her sisters, Lisa Nolan Williams (Gregory) and Amy Nolan Muxworthy; her brother, Nicholas J. Nolan, Jr.; her aunt, Sister Michael Mary, CSC; her nieces, Jamie Nolan (Brian Hallahan), Amanda Williams, and Allison Williams (Warren Reed); her nephew, Joshua Nolan (Melissa Choy); and two beloved grandnieces, Peyton Armstrong and Fiona Hallahan.
Leslie’s family will announce details of a Celebration of Life when they are finalized.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Leslie’s memory NourishNC to continue her lifelong mission of supporting at-risk youth.
The family also requests that you honor Leslie’s civic spirit by casting your vote in the upcoming election.
