EDITOR’S NOTE: Dean Shalhoup’s column usually runs Saturdays. This is an annual column looking at notable local deaths in the past year.

Death, even when caused by accident or any number of aliments, is as much an inescapable reality as anything. But each year, when I go about compiling my annual tribute to those we lost over the previous 12 months, it seems there are always more tragic and preventable deaths than the year before.

Perhaps this 2013 installment feels heavier because the sudden flurry of late-year tragedy is so fresh, most of it coming within December, topped off by an almost unfathomable series of holiday-week deaths.

It might be more difficult than usual this year, but remember, this is a time to focus not on how, or why, those close to us died, but rather on how they lived.

In a bit of a departure, I’ll start with our 2013 centenarians, those who reached the magical 100-year threshold – and then some.

Former Nashua resident Kieran M. Devery Sr. was 101 when he died March 16 in Naples, Fla. Alice M. Morin, a Nashuan since age 6, died June 22 at 103.

Well-known Hollis resident and 40-year schoolteacher Ruth A. Hills Coleman was 100 when she died on Sept. 15. And John Hopkins Morison, who died the same day and was also 100, is remembered for rescuing Milford’s Hitchiner Manufacturing from bankruptcy and building it into a success.

Avid Red Sox fan Steve Mazur, who was honored at Fenway Park on his 100th birthday, died at 101 on Sept. 26. When Marion Pinette Hathaway died on Oct. 26, the Eagle Lake, Maine, native was 103 years and 8 months old.

Three days later, Agnes (Buxton) Barker, widow of city industrialist Laurence A. Barker, died at age 102. Olivette C. Jette died Nov. 4 at 101.

Rather than categorize – it seems a tad impersonal – those who I’d like to remember today, I’ll go chronologically, starting with a last-minute 2012 death that didn’t make that end-of-year column.

That’s 2011 Nashua High Schhool South grad Kyla Muldoon, who died Dec. 31 while volunteer teaching at the Cairo English School in Egypt.

Pheobe L. Coronis, whose Nashua Corp. career spanned 55 years, died Jan. 15; she was 95.

The first tragic death of 2013 occurred Jan. 23, when store owner Judy Rolfe, 66, was murdered, allegedly by her brother.

Also that day we lost venerable Hollis farmer and town activist Elwin C. “Stub” Hardy at age 92. On Jan. 30, Nicholas J. Seminatore’s long struggles ended when he took his life.

Restaurant icon and longtime city alderman Richard J. LaRose was 73 when he died Feb. 1. Speaking of city icons, Gate City Fence co-founder Rita C. Forrence died Feb. 4 at age 95.

In mid-February, Dagualberto “Wito” Arzuaga drowned in the Nashua River; his body was found weeks later. Longtime Nashua Center mainstay and small-business founder George M. Emrich Jr. died at 51 on Feb. 21.

Robert Williams, antiques aficionado who with his wife Bette restored old homes, died Feb. 20, three weeks after celebrating his and Bette’s 70th anniversary. Legendary photographer Ozzie Sweet, who captured sports and Hollywood stars in action for years, died Feb. 26; he was 94 and lived in Maine.

Sylvia P. Kamieniecki, whom everyone knew as “Tillie,” the longtime owner of Lillian’s Motel, was 86 when she died March 1. The next day, 18-year-old Souhegan High grad Anthony Barksdale II was found dead at Boston University, where he was an engineering student.

Another 18-year-old, Nashuan Ryan House, died March 3 in Boston after enduring surgeries, stem cell and bone marrow transplants. On March 7, Ryan Donaghey, “one of the strongest people who has ever walked the halls of Campbell High School,” died of cancer; he was 20.

The full-of-life Tatios N. Magarian, the longtime city deli owner known as “Tom,” was 99 when he died March 11. And on March 22, 20-year-old Hudson native and Alvirne High grad Brandon Masterson died of injuries sustained in a car crash.

Another crash on March 30 claimed the life of Nashua motorcyclist Alan Monas; he was 26. Nashua physician Emory Kaplan died unexpectedly April 1.

Dedicated Wilton public servant Hubert “Hubie” Hoover, who helped found the town ambulance service, died April 2 at 90. Salem lost a beloved schoolteacher with the April 5 unexpected death of Litchfield resident Robin B. Mosnicka, 51.

Gifted soccer coach James W. Parratt, 79, died at his Lyndeborough home April 7. Illness claimed Nashua lawyer and huge youth sports supporter John “Jack” Dwyer Jr., 66, on April 8.

Bedford fire Lt. James Clark died unexpectedly at 56 on April 11, shortly after completing a shift. Tragedy struck two blows at once on April 19, when longtime friends Rob Carson and Keith Bernasconi died in an early-morning car crash on Route 101 in Amherst.

The unexpected death May 1 of Amherst physician Anthony “Tony” Wojcicki left many in mourning. Little Devon Gould was just 2 when he died in early May, allegedly at the hand of his mother, who was charged in the case.

A fiery car crash claimed the life of 31-year-old Mont Vernon resident Jason M. Vasquez, an avid sports fan and family man, on May 16. Former longtime Nashuan Mark Donnelly lost his life to violence when he was shot and killed May 18 in Manchester.

Merrimack’s Arthur Dias, an “excellent student and gifted athlete” at Merrimack High School, died May 26; he was 17. In Litchfield, 48-year-old Debbie Craven died June 1 after being struck by a car near her home on Derry Road.

Nashuan Cari Spencer, 46, died the next day when the motorcycle she was a passenger on crashed in Newton, Mass. Another motorcycle tragedy the next day on Hudson’s Greeley Street claimed the life of 43-year-old Hudson resident Steven Fortier.

Beloved Alvirne High teacher Barbara T. Boyd’s death on June 5 saddened generations of co-workers and students. She was 60. And illness also claimed popular public servant George Infanti, who served as selectman in Milford, Wilton and Amherst; he died at his Amherst home June 13.

Violence struck Nashua’s quiet Crown Hill neighborhood on June 17, the day the bodies of longtime residents William and Eleanor Grant were found in their Newbury Street home, the victims of multiple stab wounds.

Another Amherst physician, John D. Jackson, died on June 19 at age 59. And Nashua’s beloved Sharon (Szalanski) Dwane, who bravely fought cancer for years, left many broken hearts when she died June 21 at age 52.

A few days later, the body of 29-year-old mother Sarah McCormack was found in her crashed vehicle off Temple Street. Nashua restaurateur Ronald Renna Sr. was 65 when he died July 1.

Vietnam-era Air Force veteran Alfred Demeusy met with a tragic end July 10 when his Nashua home exploded and burned. He was 65. The deaths July 12 of Nashua couple Reginald and Mary Danboise, ruled murder-suicide, shocked family, friends and associates.

The next day, friendly Chestnut Street resident Christina Hill was found dead in her apartment, the victim of a homicide. The full, dedicated life of Sister Mary Sharon Walsh ended July 27, triggering widespread mourning for the 74-year-old who helped found Marguerite’s Place in Nashua, among many other accomplishments.

Automobile enthusiast John “Jack” Darisse, a two-time Purple Heart recipient, was 62 when he died Aug. 9 of injuries sustained in a West Hollis Street car crash.

The first of several tragedies connected to the Hollis Brookline High School community occurred Aug. 16 with the car crash death of 2011 graduate Kendall Van Schoick. A bicycle-tractor trailer crash Aug. 23 claimed the life of Christine Reeves.

Inspirational speaker and author Dawn Richards Machovic died Sept. 4 after years of battling cancer, a fight she chronicled in her book, The Cancer Table. The next day, The Telegraph family lost longtime member Richard Tucker, a 36-year mainstay in the newspaper’s composing room. He was 83.

Nashua Fire Rescue mechanic John P. Marcum was 65 when he died unexpectedly on Sept. 14. Nashua resident and gifted musician Theresa M. Raymond died Sept. 17 from injuries sustained in an August car accident.

Former city Alderman Frederick E. Goodspeed, who represented Ward 4 for 10 years, died at 94 on Sept. 20. A freak accident Oct. 3 at a Lowell, Mass., bar claimed the life of Hudson resident Krystal Eve Doucette; she was 27.

A week later, Litchfield resident Jason Mitchell, 33, died after being struck by a car on Route 3A in that town. On Nov. 5, seventh-generation Mont Vernon resident Joseph G. Carleton Sr. died at 92. The same day, well-known Nashua realtor Earl A. Damon died in Nashua.

Thomas “Tommy” Bickford, a “true people person” who graduated from Alvirne High School and attended Nashua Center, was 23 when he died Nov. 6. A week later, 21-year-old Sebastian Abt, a 2010 Hollis Brookline High School grad, died when his car and a truck collided on Route 130 in Hollis.

Lifelong Nashua resident Noah M. Rapalje lost his battle with leukemia on Nov. 20; he was 15. The same day, the Brookline fire community mourned the unexpected death of Deputy Chief Curt Jensen, who died at home at 51.

Well-known builder Robert Daigle, a former Nashua alderman, was 88 when he died Nov. 26. Hungarian Freedom Fighter and avid motorcyclist Theodore Takacs also died that day, three months after a driver hit Takacs motorcycle and took off. He was 79.

Effie Stylianos, the widow of well-known Telegraph managing editor John D. Stylianos who was active in her church, was 91 when she died Dec. 6.

Tragedy returned to the Hollis Brookline community Dec. 9, when 17-year-old senior Cam Ricard was killed when he lost control of his vehicle on ice in Nashua while returning from hockey practice. The next day, an ATV accident claimed the life of Army Specialist Daniel R. Eckstein; the Nashua man was 22.

Two Hudson youths were left without a father Dec. 16 when Hudson plow operator David Gariepy collapsed and died of a heart attack after a 24-hour plowing shift. On Dec. 17, venerable Nashua shoemaker and cobbler shop owner Charles G. Boghigian died at age 96.

Also on Dec. 17, a large group of family and friends grieved the loss of 22-year-old Nicholas Alexander Dalbec, who graduated from Milford High in 2009.

Merrimack resident and aspiring author Eric M. L’Ecuyer was just 29 when he was killed in a Dec. 18 accident on Route 101 in Milford. Former Benson’s Wild Animal Farm owner Arthur Provencher was 83 when he died Dec. 19; his license plate read “MYZOO.” Longtime Nashua teacher Jean G. Gelinas of Merrimack died Dec. 20.

The tragic death of well-known Amherst resident John Bachman, a retired town fire chief, businessman and Telegraph columnist who was struck by a car in front of his home Dec. 23, cast a pall of sadness across the area.

The next day, Brookline suffered another loss when Katie Hamilton, a mother of three who was returning to her parents’ house, was killed in a three-vehicle crash on Route 13. She was 30.

And another fatal crash on Dec. 27 on Route 101A in Amherst took the life of 62-year-old salesman John Ferraro, a 30-year Amherst resident.

A tip of the hat to all, whether mentioned here or not, who helped make the world a better place.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-6443 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow Shalhoup on Twitter (@Telegraph_DeanS).