Dean Shalhoup

Longtime reporter, columnist and photographer, is back doing what he does best ñ chronicling the people and history of Nashua. Reaching 40 years with The Telegraph in September, Deanís insights have a large, appreciative following.

As I’ve done for several years, I once again devote this space to paying tribute to local folks we lost over the course of a most forgettable year named 2020.

I see it as an opportunity for all of us to silently appreciate those folks, be they family members, close friends, or acquaintences who left their community, and the world, a better place for others.

Each year I also remind readers that not seeing your loved one’s name in this space doesn’t in any way suggest his or her life isn’t worthy of a year-end tribute.

While every life is worth celebrating, and every passing worth mourning, it’s the men and women we feel had the widest, and most profound, impact on their communities to whom we remember today.

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January

Skilled artist Troy Allen Patten, 32, founder of Tender T Pinning, died Jan. 9. Thomas P. West, 61, lifelong writer who contributed to many publications, passed Jan. 20.

Gene Barretto, who was among a small, select group of dedicated Nashua youth sports coaches, died Jan. 25.

On Jan. 27, Hudson resident Capt. Ryan S. Phaneuf, 30, was killed when the plane he was co-piloting crashed in Afghanistan.

And well-known longtime Nashua teacher and business department head at NHS passed in her 95th year on Jan. 31.

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February

Retired Nashua police Captain Gary H. Watson was 73 when he died Feb. 7. Elizabeth “Betty” Burns, who worked with elephants at Benson’s Wild Animal farm in Hudson as a young woman, was 99 when she passed Feb. 14.

Special education teacher and case manager Kristi Marie Cunha was 43 when she passed Feb. 18. Mont Vernon resident Tracey Miller, a dedicated Souhegan school board member and active Mont Vernon PTO member, died at 69 on Feb. 26.

Musician Arthur Olsson, long active with the local symphony and other orchestras, died Feb. 27.

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March

One of this year’s centenarians, Hope F. Thurlow, who died March 1, was just eight days short of her 101st birthday. Bluegrass musician Gerard “Gerry” Jean, who played for 60 years throughout the region, died at 99.

Born in Portugal, Milford resident Maria Dulce Vieira was 100 when she passed March 19, the same day that Charles H. Farwell Jr., generational owner of the longtime Nashua funeral home, passed at age 93.

April

Lifelong educator Peter F. Desautels, a dean of Community Education at Nashua Community College, died at age 80 on April 5. David Charron, whose resume included working as a “licenced, real-beard Santa” for L.L. Bean, died at 68 on April 19.

Well-known Hudson eduator Peter G. Dolloff, principal at several schools and superintendent of the SAU that included Hudson and Litchfield and several other towns, was 85 when he passed April 26.

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May

On May 2, Rolf H. Bremer, whose many endeavors included poltics, memberships in several fraternal and civic organizations and the owner of Milford’s seafood industry, died at 89 in Brookline.

Centenarian Septima “Tina” Gaidmore died May 11 in Milford; graduated from MHS in 1937 and was a career banker.

Marie Blanche Belanger was just three weeks from her 109th birthday when she died May 15. Founding member and three-time president of the Nashua Club Richelieu chapter Gerard-Raymond Bergeron died May 18.

And Evelyn McLaughlin, a lifelong educator who weathered the untimely deaths of her husband and three of her four children, was 97 when she passed May 21.

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June

Robert “Bob” Bates, inventor, engineer and accomplished public address announcer for local youth sports events for more than 30 years, passed at 79 on June 5.

Also on June 5, Etchstone Properties founder Kevin T. Slattery, known for “relentless determination and leadership” qualities, died at age 67.

Former Nashua alderman-at-large and Elks’ Man of the Year Leo H. Coutermarsh died June 6 at 90. Charles Duval, former Amherst fire chief and an Amherst Citizen of the Year, was 91 when he passed June 17.

And Dorothy (Dionne) Duquette, who died June 28 in Hudson, was 103 years old.

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July

Well-known Nashua science and biology teacher Raymond O. Bissonnette died July 2, and on July 6, 100-year-old Josephine Anne Chevrette died of natural causes in Nashua.

The town of Mont Vernon lost one of its most active and devoted citizens with the passing of Keith E. Pomeroy at age 87 on July 9.

Diana Juris, president and owner of Nashua Motor Express, the trucking firm founded by her grandparents, passed at age 72 on July 20. Also on July 20, Carol Leon Charette, known as “Mr. Carol” to decades of bartending students, died at age 75.

Longtime state representative from Nashua Sylvia Gale passed at age 70 on July 21. And Noella Ouellette was 1010 when she passed July 22 in Hudson.

And Nashua lost a pair of coaching legends just four days apart in July. George “Gig” Marineau, who started the ice hockey program at Nashua High in the 1960s and coached until 1981, was 87 when he died July 27.

Nashua girls basketball coaching legend John Fagula, who won 11 state championships and compiled a 432-72 record, and whose 1987 teach was named the top girls team in the nation, passed July 31 at age 73.

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August

Adam Michael Verrecchia, who “fought brain cancer courageously, fearlessly and with tremendous faith in God,” was just 9 when he died Aug. 3 at his Hollis home.

And lifelong educator Nancy Collins Barry, who taught at three different Nashua schools and became a reading teacher, died Aug. 10 at age 86.

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September

Longtime Milford resident Jonathan Amerault was 25 when he life was tragically cut short on Sept. 20. And local golfing legend William “Billy” Lochhead died Sept. 24 at age 84, just weeks after watching the annual State Amateur tournament.

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October

Roy E. Maston II, who founded the Amherst Rescue Squad and was named a Citizen of the Year in 1975, died at 84 on Oct. 4. And lifelong teacher Lawrence “Larry” Brown was 78 when he died at his Wilton home.

Centenarian Arley B. Gilbertson died Oct. 16 in Nashua. And Michael H. Monks, who with former Mayor Bernie Streeter is credited with founding the PLUS Company’s annual Wild Irish Breakfast fundraiser, died at age 71 on Oct. 17.

Bishop Emeritus Odore J. Gendron, who served Nashua parishes in the 1960s, was the nation’s oldest serving bishop when he died at age 99 on Oct. 19.

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November

Nashua businessman Leon P. Brassard, who served on boards of numerous organizations, died Nov. 9 at age 89.

Erwin “Pete” Ziner, who flew in the Last Mission over Japan as a first lieutenant in the Army Air Corps, was 97 when he passed Nov. 12.

Milford teacher and basketball coach William “Billy” Brown was 63 when he passed Nov. 16. And on Nov. 17, longtime Nashua educator Silvia Abelleira, who taught Spanish for 25 years at Nashua High, died at age 87.

Litchfield lost one of its most active residents with the passing Nov. 21 of Marilyn “Pat” Jewett, who was 92 and had served on countless boards, committees and political entities.

Former city corporation counsel H. Philip Howorth, who became a longtime Nashua district court judge known for traveling by bicycle no matter the weather, did Nov. 30 at age 87.

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December

A Merrimack house fire Dec. 2 claimed the life of longtime Reeds Ferry resident Shirley Mae Gordon, who was 81. Also on Dec. 2, Harry “Sonny” Stice, a marksman who founded the Horseshoe Fish & Game Club in Merrimack, passed at age 87.

Davis “Skip” Bryant, Nashua native known for decades worth of service to others and who was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Nashua Rotary Club last year, died at 92 on Dec. 4.

Richard “Dick” Hinch, who had just been named Speaker of the House of Representatives, died suddenly at his Merrimack home on Dec. 9. He was 71.

On Dec. 12, Bronislawa Pawlukiewicz, also known as Blanche Cwiklik, passed at the age of 103 at her Nashua home of 73 years.

Career Nashua firefighter Richard “Dick” Chasse, known as a department historian who retired as a deputy chief, was 96 when he passed Dec. 21.

Best wishes and happy New Year to all.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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