Sometime this weekend, most of us will take a few minutes to glance back over 2009. As I do every year-end, I’m using today’s space to pay tribute to some of this area’s personalities we lost in 2009, a year that most agree will go down as one of the more difficult, stressful years in some time.

So, before you set out to take 2010 by storm, please take a moment to salute not only those departed friends I’ve compiled here, but also those who have passed who were close to you.

Accident victims

Paul “Rocky” Messina, of Brookline, was 50 when he died in a tree-cutting accident in late January. An accident on Feb. 9 involving heavy equipment claimed the life of 38-year-old John “Johnny Zee” Zyla, who worked in the prominent Merrimack family’s auction-house, retail and warehousing business.

Tragically, two 16-year-old Milford youths died April 27 when the car they were riding in crashed in New Boston. Alexander Betty and Gage LaFontaine were sophomores at Milford High School.

A mid-May auto crash in Lee claimed 51-year-old wife and mother, Lynn Carrier-Jordan, a free-spirited Nashua high grad who worked at Nashua corporation. Two weeks later, 53-year-old motorcyclist Gary Bloom, of Merrimack, hailed as “the nicest human being alive,” was killed when his bike crashed in Bedford.

A skateboarding accident in mid-July took the life of avid longboarder and GreenStreetLongBoards.com co-founder Tyler Jay Coffey, 20. In early October, 57-year-old Nashua native Louise (Roy) Gauthier died after an auto-pedestrian accident near her West Hollis Street home. The death of Milford resident Michelle M. Boehm, 48, in an early November accident in Nashua was mourned throughout the Souhegan Valley. And right before the year closed out, there were two more crash-related deaths. Helen P. Currie, 82, of Merrimack, crashed into a utility pole on Route 1 in Maine on Christmas Eve, causing her death. Geoffrey Kennedy, 49, of Nashua, was killed after being ejected from a vehicle he was riding in on the Mass Turnpike in the early morning hours of Dec. 31.

Murder victims

A most difficult category, for sure, especially when the victim died as part of an especially horrendous crime. That was the case with 42-year-old Kimberly Cates, the Mont Vernon wife and mom who lost her life in a brutal Oct. 4 attack at her Mont Vernon home.

In early May, police ruled the death of 59-year-old Nashuan John Wiegmann a homicide, saying he was strangled in his room at Motel 6. On Sept. 30, domestic violence took its toll when 45-year-old flea market and estate sale lover Phyllis Marchand died in her Hollis home, allegedly at the hands of her husband.

And a fight at a Halloween party turned deadly for 20- year-old Nashuan Chris Vydfol, a devoted son and sibling and animal lover who was stabbed to death at a Merrimack home.

Military

Milford native Craig Hamilton was mourned locally after he died unexpectedly at Fort Sam Houston in Texas in late March. The 1992 Milford high graduate was a sergeant in the U.S. Army.

Local educators

Most of the appreciation we hold for our teachers was generated retroactively. That said, here are those we lost in 2009.

English teacher Hector Chartrain, who taught in Nashua and Milford during his long career, was 88 when he died in March. On April 3, we lost Gert Belanger, 72, a longtime city teacher and widow of well-known teacher and athletics enthusiast Richard Belanger.

Rebecca “Beckie” Lambert, who taught special education in Amherst and New Ipswich, was 52 when she passed in May. Well-known Nashua high math and chemistry teacher Jeanne Scheer died on May 22 at age 87. Elementary school teacher Barbara (Lemary) Hill, 79, who taught around the state and ended her career as the New Searles Elementary School librarian, passed on May 29.

Cancer claimed Merrimack special education and language arts specialist Barbara May Goebel, 55, just after the start of the school year. Three weeks later, Mary Madeline Trow, who had the distinction of teaching at all three city middle schools as well as Nashua high in her long career, passed at 84.

Irene (Anderson) Crook, a 15-year Nashua teacher, died in October, weeks shy of her 98th birthday. Londonderry elementary remedial reading teacher Carol Rosse passed in late October at 56.

One of Nashua’s proudest native sons and deeply dedicated lifelong teacher Donald R. Marquis passed on Oct. 28 from complications of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease. He spent his entire 32-year career in social studies at Nashua high and continued on as a workshop facilitator and publishing consultant after his 1995 retirement.

Alvirne math teacher Elaine (Cormier) Coronis, who’d been the valedictorian of her class at Nashua’s former St. Louis High School, passed on Oct. 31 at 59. Beloved Amherst elementary teacher and rose growing expert Teresita “Tessie” McKeown was 71 when she died on Nov. 2, and 33-year Nashua speech therapist Linda (Hanson) Herbert died on Nov. 4 at 62.

Milford high graduate and popular Mont Vernon Village School principal Gail Elizabeth Westergren was 52 when cancer claimed her on Nov. 6, just two months into the start of her principalship. Ruth Ellen Powers, a longtime Mont Vernon resident and nearly 40-year teacher and reading specialist in Goffstown, died on Nov. 23.

We knew them well

Some became household names, all were well-known for one reason or another.

First, a makeup from 2008: Dr. Frank Gaimari, the first earthly face more than 8,000 newborns saw upon their birth, was 79 when he passed on Dec. 17, 2008.

Longtime downtown businessman Jordan D. Cohen, whose Jordan’s Luggage shop was a 60-year Main Street mainstay, died on Jan. 10 at 85.

Insurance executive Gordon L. French, quite the athlete in his youth who made Hudson his home for decades, passed at 82 on Jan. 26. Hollis native and Brookline resident William D. Owens, an Air Force man, one-time police officer, youth sports supporter and former selectman and zoning board member was just 46 when he passed on Jan. 17.

Prolific family dentist W. Boyd Weston was 88 when, after accomplishing a nearly 60-year career, he passed on Jan. 18.

Two weeks later, Hudson lost the colorful former legislator and political activist Marshall Cobleigh, who was also a longtime insurance man. He was 78. Community activist, jazz musician and Nashua Senior Activities Center leader Donald M. Decker, a holder of the Breakfast Exchange Club’s Book of Golden Deeds, passed at age 80.

Brilliant architect-interior designer and devoted civil rights activist Bliss Woodruff was recalled as “a proud gay man and comfortable in his role as a father” upon his Jan. 28 passing at age 86. And longtime Nashuans will remember retired Air Force Lt. Col. Edgar M. Lewis, who passed on March 3 at age 77, for his tenure as a hard-working city alderman.

On March 7, family man, community leader and businessperson George B. Law, who turned a horse and carriage transportation outfit into a freight, storage and real estate mini-empire and was the last living charter member of the Exchange Club of Nashua, passed at age 90.

Favorite nurse Pat Mandravelis, whose lifelong career cured thousands of ills, passed at 70 on March 13. Also that month, city alderman, city solicitor and Nashua District Court Special Justice Arthur O. Gormley Jr. died at age 77, and prolific community volunteer and Department of Defense worker Nancy Chapin Blish passed at 65.

In April, computer businessman and well-known Amherst town official, civic volunteer and theater enthusiast Thomas M. Head passed at age 81, and colorful conservative Alan C. Thomaier, who played semi-pro baseball and served as a city cop and mail carrier, died at 88.

Hollis landmark 160-year-old Brookdale Fruit Farm lost a family member upon the May 27 death of Elizabeth Hardy, who started its retail farm stand many years ago. City machinist-turned-funeral director Stanley P. Zis was 85 when he passed in June.

Also that month, Hollis lost another longtime farmer, Harold F. Hills, 87, who was known as the “peach grower” at Kimball Fruit Farm.

In August, prodigious rose cultivator Malcolm “Mike” Lowe, who ran Lowe’s Roses with his wife for years and served on the planning and economic development boards, died at 73, and former city police officer and detective Ronald Dowling passed at 67.

Former city Alderman Robert A. Dion, who also served as a state representative, died on Sept. 18 at age 76. Local ice cream lovers were among the mourners when former The Big One owner Marcel Lemay passed at 78 in October.

Printing and engraving guru Zacharias Mandravelis, Zax Corp. owner, Greek church benefactor and philanthropist whose craftsmanship and artistry live on today throughout the world, died in late November at 85.

The city lost another favorite son on Dec. 21, when Bernard Pastor, the French Hill native who grew up to purchase and run one of the city’s most successful and respected family businesses, Fletcher’s Appliance, died at age 87.

Well worth noting

If you appreciate your microwave oven, scientist Robert Decareau’s Jan. 18 passing should have affected you; the Amherst resident is credited with helping to invent the device, along with advancing food storage techniques such as freeze-drying. He was 82.

A week later, bass fisherman and well-known city barber, Ronald McCarthy Sr., who groomed heads and faces for 43 years, died at age 69. Former Telegraph promotions specialist Maureen E. Landrigan, who was also an English teacher, college lecturer, skilled thespian and director, passed on Jan. 25 at 78.

Former Milford resident and Telegraph columnist Joan Tefft Deguise passed on Feb. 13 at 63. And if you remember Jean’s Foodland and Soucy’s Market, you’ll remember Donald Albrecht, the hard-working, pleasant man always ready to help you with your groceries. He passed in March at age 87.

In May, 1950s Telegraph reporter John E. Warrington, who went on to work for high-ranking U.S. Sen. Styles Bridges, passed at age 77, and city native Thomas D. Winn Jr., a career State Police trooper who grew to be a polygraph and crime scene expert, died at 74.

After fighting back from near-fatal burns in 1987, Helen Gorman lived 22 more active years as a resident councilor and volunteer at Greenbriar Terrace before passing in May at 75.

In August, the world of art lost one of its most valuable members with the passing of 96-year-old Hyman Bloom, a Nashua resident who worked his genius in quiet solitude. Catherine T. Mavrikos, the Milford resident who, at age 83, earned the title of oldest bank teller in the state, died in September at 87. Also that month, Erica Pombrio of Merrimack was only 23 when she lost her courageous battle with cancer.

An honor roll student, painter and passionate reader who received Hudson’s “Super Reader Award,” Mallory Lynn Gray, was just 13 when she passed in October. Also that month, widely known auctioneer and Brookline Auction Gallery founder William “Willie” Pelletier passed at age 81.

Prodigious researcher, reader, newspaper columnist and history buff Andrew E. Rothovius, whose name is also synonymous with science and meteorology, was 86 when he passed Oct. 28.

Shortly after local newspapers told the story of his exemplary bravery and heroic actions as an Army Air Corps captain in World War II, which included a 10-month stint as a prisoner of war in Germany, Bernerd “Bernie” Harding of Milford succumbed to prostate cancer at age 90. Also that week, Ethel “Tooty” Ciardelli, who ran the Ciardelli Fuel Co. out of her Nashua Street kitchen from 1957-87, passed at age 86.

Just weeks before his favorite holiday, Nashua’s beloved Santa Claus, Norman A. Benjamin, a local baker’s helper and former long-haul trucker, passed at 68. On Dec. 5, well-known Hollis portrait photographer Arthur Whitty died in Maine at age 70, and on Dec. 8, former city alderman and VFW Post 483 commander Donald Hardy passed at 79.

Affable Polish-American Club bartender and decorated World War II veteran Peter Markiewicz passed at 97 on Dec. 12. A day later, Nashua resident Anne Goldman Kaplan, who fled Russia with her mother and sisters during the Russian Revolution, settled in Lowell, became a remarkably successful advocate and counselor for families with mental illness, was named the 1975 Lowell Citizen of the Year and later helped found Nashua-based Classic In-Home Care, passed at age 94.

George W. Sargent, a high school and semi-pro athlete and longtime city youth sports coach who served on the city Board of Aldermen, was 84 when he passed on Dec. 16. Two days later, devoted churchgoer and well-known city portrait and wedding photographer Normand P. Loranger, died at 82, and Nashua-based Worthen Industries president Robert F. Worthen passed on Christmas Day at age 61.

Centenarians

My favorite category. Longevity, especially vibrant longevity, tends to bring out the optimist in all of us. Starting with our even-100 class:

Longtime Hudsonian Thelma (Fifield) Lemire, who once worked at W.T. Grant in Nashua and was long active in local, state and national Grange organizations, passed on Jan. 7. Beatrice (Pineo) Reed, an avid reader and longtime Hollis resident, passed in Maine on Jan. 17, and local nurse Elizabeth “Betty” Harrington died on Feb. 4, about a month before she would have made 101.

In March, Boston-born Gilda I. Balandis passed at the Fairview six weeks after marking her centennial. In September, Sr. Juliette Richard, a lifelong musician who entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary in 1928, died in Manchester, and Mary (Coombs) McMahon, originally from Lynn, Mass., passed in November at Greenbriar Terrace.

Our lone 101-year-old is Madelene (Hackett) Garside, a Pepperell native, Nashua High graduate and 23-year Hudson school teacher who passed on March 12. Likewise, former longtime Nashuan Dorothy “Liz” Collins is our sole 102-year-old; the widow of John H. Collins, she passed on Feb. 23.

With no 103-year-olds this year, we move up to the 104-year milestone, where we find Esther (Mitchell) Cutter, a Brunswick, Maine, native who came to Nashua in the 1930’s. Esther was featured in this space when she turned 104 in February 2008. (She passed on Dec. 28, 2008, but didn’t make last year’s tribute column).

Longtime Amherst residents may recall Gladys E. Pestana, who died at a laudable 105 in March at Nashua’s Hunt Community. She and her husband J. Justin Pestana Sr. bought the former Hayward Farm on Walnut Hill Road in 1938; he died in 1964, but she continued living there until recently moving to the Hunt.

Isabelle Theriault, known in Sisters of Charity circles as Sister Yvonne and Sister Mary of Good Counsel, was born in Nashua on Feb. 1, 1903, making her an even, and admirable, 1061?2 when she passed in Plattsburgh, N.Y., on Aug. 1.

Now comes this year’s super-centenarian, whose profile appeared in this space more than once over the years: Mary (Leisegang) Striker, a German native who was in her 20s when she entered America via Ellis Island and went on to operate farms and delis on Long Island with her late husband.

Mary passed on Easter Sunday, at a remarkable 107 years and 3 months of age.

Happy New Year to all and may we carry our loved ones in our hearts as we set out in 2010.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears Saturdays in The Telegraph. He can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 31, or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.