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There is a particular kind of person who makes you feel, simply by being in the room with them that you matter. They make you feel that you have something to offer, and the world is better because you’re in it. Nell Hurley was that person—and the recovery community in Minnesota, and far beyond, is immeasurably poorer by her absence.
Nell, a tireless Minnesota recovery advocate, passed away on Saturday, April 25th at home in St. Paul, one block from where she was born. She was 56.
Nell entered recovery in 1997 at the age of 27. From this point forward, her life became an unfolding act of generosity. She wore her recovery not as a badge of accomplishment, but as an open invitation, a way of saying to anyone struggling, “This is possible, and you are worth it.”
Her fingerprints are on nearly every corner of Minnesota’s recovery landscape. She was the founding Executive Director of Minnesota Recovery Connection, the first recovery community organization in the state, giving thousands of Minnesotans a place to belong and a voice in managing their own care. She brought her talents to Hazelden Betty Ford, to Augsburg University’s StepUP collegiate recovery program, to The Phoenix, and to the national level at SAMHSA, and Faces and Voices of Recovery. She founded Hurley Health, her own fitness coaching practice, rooted in the beliefs that she held deeply: Every person is naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. She showed up fully authentic in every role she held and in every room she entered.
Jeremiah Gardner, a former colleague at Hazelden Betty Ford, captured something essential about what made Nell so extraordinary, “I always felt valued and worthwhile in her presence—like I brought something to the conversation and to the world. Her humility and ability to help me feel that way was a superpower and a gift. One can have no greater trait, in my opinion. We will all miss Nell dearly.”
She was the best peer support anyone could ask for, always sharing, connecting, supporting, and helping to clear the path.
The gift of making people feel seen and significant was not incidental to her work. It was the work. Whether she was supporting a young person in recovery who was navigating college life at StepUP, coaching a client through Hurley Health, or sitting across from a colleague at the end of a long day, Nell had a way of meeting people exactly where they were.
Kate Moeller of Fully Vested Recovery Movement, and a dear friend of Nell, remembered her this way: “Nell was the kind of person who was genuine. She oozed compassion and kindness. She was an absolute bulldozer paving the way for the recovery community, always doing the next right thing. Nell showed up. Authentic. Beautiful. And with a laugh that could make you wet your pants from laughing so hard with her!”
Wendy Jones of MARCO reflected on what it meant to be welcomed into Nell’s world: “Nell nurtured and tended the garden of Minnesota’s recovery movement wherever she went. She had moved on from MRC years before I showed up, but she sought me out with a warm embrace and guiding hand as though we had always been walking this path together. She helped me find my way, shared her abundant knowledge and connections, and made me feel like I wasn’t an imposter. She was the best peer support anyone could ask for, always sharing, connecting, supporting, and helping to clear the path.”
Ericka Otterson of Augsburg StepUP beautifully stated: “Some people don’t just do the work, they become part of it. Nell Hurley was that kind of person. Her presence in the Minnesota recovery community, her ties to StepUP, and the genuine connections she built will outlast any words written in her honor. We are better for having known her.”
Nell lived a life of purpose, of presence, and of profound kindness. She chose recovery every day, and in doing so, she made it easier for countless others to choose it, too. This is a lasting legacy, one which is already woven into the fabric of the community just like Nell.
Nell is survived by her husband, William C. Moyers, and their son, Jasper. She leaves behind a recovery community she helped build from the ground up; one that carries her spirit in its culture, its compassion, and its commitment to the self-respect of everyone in recovery.
Before she passed, Nell wrote the following on her CaringBridge page:
“As I reflect on the richness of my life, I am feeling so deeply grateful for the abundance of memories I have gathered and the people I have had an opportunity to love so deeply. Thank you for being a part of this beautiful, adventurous, curious, light and love filled journey.”
Memorial information:
Thursday, May 21, 2026
4-7 p.m.
O’Halloran & Murphy Funeral Home
575 South Snelling Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55116
In lieu of flowers, if you’d like to honor Nell with a donation, she asked that gifts go to SHE RECOVERS, an organization whose work she believed in deeply.
