Gene Sidore

Gene Sidore, 87, of Hollis, NH, passed away on October 9, 2025, after a period of declining health. Gene was shaped unmistakably by the family he was born into, with its legacy of sharp intellect, biting wit, hard work, and tremendous achievement. Yet as Gene would say, “what you need to understand” is that he defined himself most fully through the family he chose to create with his wife Linda and the three sons they nurtured with love and compassion.

Born Eugene Sidore on June 24, 1938, in the Bronx, he was one of five children of the late Saul O. and May (Blum) Sidore, owners of the Pandora sweater factory in Manchester. After graduating from the Woodstock School in Vermont and the University of New Hampshire, Gene began a varied professional career that included an administrative role at the U.S. Postal Service and in sales for his family’s business and elsewhere. Most remarkably, he retrained in his late 30s to become a programmer and database administrator during the infancy of personal computing, a field in which he worked until retiring from Geac Computer Corporation.

If his professional life was multifaceted, Gene’s personal life was one of deep and stable devotion. He was married for over 50 years to the late Linda (Cohen) Sidore and leaves behind a second wife, Ellen Scocca-Sanchez. He is survived by three sons from his first marriage and their families: David and his wife Nicole of State College, PA, with their son Benjamin; Michael and his wife Jesset of Oakland, CA, with their son Austin; and Steven and his wife Paula of Bad Honnef, Germany, with their sons Dante, Sebastian, and Tillman. He is also mourned by his surviving siblings Sara Mae, Ralph, and Micala, and was predeceased by his sister Rebecca in 1994.

Beyond an abiding love for winter sports, classical music, and science fiction, Gene was deeply passionate about politics. For all his strong opinions on national affairs, his actions focused largely on the local. He served for over fifty years in a foundation dedicated to charitable giving to local organizations, but considered it an even greater honor to be involved with New Hampshire’s fabled direct democracy. For decades, he was a familiar presence at town meetings, persuasively arguing for or against local initiatives. Education, in particular, was of enduring importance to him, and he expressed immense pride that his sons and their wives all hold advanced degrees.

Gene passed away at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua and was interred at the Hebrew Cemetery of Manchester in a private ceremony. An open memorial service will be held at 1 pm on Sunday, November 23, at the Lawrence Barn Community Center, 28 Depot Road, Hollis, NH. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his name to the Hollis Social Library, where he was a loyal and appreciative patron for over four decades.