InDepthNH.org scans the websites of New Hampshire funeral homes each week and selects at random some of our friends, relatives and neighbors to feature in this column. The people listed here passed away during the previous weeks and have some public or charitable connection to their community. InDepthNH.org is now offering obituaries through the Legacy.com service. We view this as part of our public service mission. Click here or on the Obituaries tab at the top of our home page to learn more. And if you know of someone from New Hampshire who should be featured in this column, please send your suggestions to NancyWestNews@gmail.com.
Mary Bidgood-Wilson, 71, of Moultonborough, died Oct. 21, 2024. She was an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN), a family nurse practitioner, and certified nurse midwife in the Lakes Region for more than 40 years, delivering hundreds of babies. She served on committees for the New Hampshire Nurse Practitioners Association focusing on access to care. As chairperson of the organization’s Committee on Third Party Reimbursement, she fought for pay equity for nurse practitioners from Medicaid. She served on committees for the Moultonborough School District, Cancer Society of Carroll County and the New Hampshire Children’s Health Foundation. She traveled to Haiti in 2010 after an earthquake to provide healthcare to mothers and newborns. (Mayhew Funeral Homes and Crematorium)
Paul Cathcart, 84, of Dunbarton, died Oct. 22, 2024. A U.S. Navy veteran, he dedicated more than 40 years to the U.S. Postal Service, retiring as the postmaster of Concord in 1996. (Kent & Pelczar Funeral Home & Crematory)
Michael David Coughlin, 82, of Canterbury, died Oct. 16, 2024. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and was assigned to the USS Joseph K. Taussig DE 1030 and the USS Coates DE 685. He served in Viet Nam and as a foreign liaison officer for the Third Naval District in New York City. He then worked for the Pillsbury Company in Minneapolis as a product and marketing manager. He became president of The Grist Mill Company in Lakeville, Minn., and after a move to Concord, he was general manager of The Concord Monitor for five years. In 1984, he joined Concord Litho Company, and a year later became its president. He started his own consulting practice and served on the boards of Lincoln National Variable Insurance Trust, Merrimack County Savings Bank, New Hampshire Mutual BanCorp, and Mill River Wealth Management. He was chairman and trustee of Concord Hospital and Capital Region Healthcare Corp, a director of the Chamber of Commerce and the Concord YMCA and a member of the Rotary Club, the New Hampshire Supreme Court Long-Range Planning Task Force and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Ethics Committee. He was a heart transplant recipient in 2010. (Cuffe-McGinn Funeral Home, Lynn, Mass.)
Dennis Duchesneau, 77, of Rochester, died Oct. 28, 2024. A U.S. Army veteran, he worked at the Rochester Police Department, retiring at the rank of captain after 20 years. He eventually returned to the Rochester Police Department for another 22 years, working on a part-time basis. He belonged to the Graniteers Drum and Bugle corps. (Grondin Funeral Home)
Shirley L. Hamel, 84, of Concord, died Oct. 24, 2024. She and her husband Fred were very active in the Pittsburg community. They ran the Northwood Motel, Treats and Treasures, and the Pittsburg Home Center. They were named citizens of the year for their community volunteerism and engagement. (Legacy.com)
Charles Murray Hebble Jr., 93, of Hanover, died Oct. 21, 2024. He was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and moved to Hanover in 1970 where he founded three companies, each later sold to major corporations. He served on boards for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Kendal at Hanover and the Montshire Museum of Science. (Rand-Wilson Funeral Home)
Anita Lorah Hinkle, 86, of Merrimack, died Oct. 28, 2024. She was a businesswoman in the Nashua community, where she was the owner/publisher of TV Facts magazine from 1980 to 1992. (Rivet Funeral Home)
Russell I. Nolin, 84, of Rochester and formerly of Berlin, died Oct. 27, 2024. He taught social studies for 40 years in the Berlin School System. (Bryant Funeral Homes)
Patricia Ellen Powell, 74, of Merrimack, died Oct. 22, 2024. In Burlington, Vt., she and four of her siblings opened the first of what would be six New England-based Mexican restaurants called Tortilla Flat. They opened a second restaurant in Stowe, Vt., and a third in Merrimack, where she relocated. (Farwell Funeral Service)
Neil E. Rennie, 76, of Weare, died Oct. 25, 2024. He was a photographer and professor of photography who owned and operated the photographic post-production studio Photopia in Boston for more than 15 years until 2004. He taught courses in analog and digital photography at Northeastern University, the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, and New England College in Henniker. (Holt-Woodbury Funeral Home & Cremation)
Ralph Willis Torr, 93, of Rochester, died Oct. 27, 2024. He served in the N.H. House of Representatives for 16 years and was one of the longest serving members of the Rochester City Council. During the Korean War, he was a member of the U.S. Air Force Air Rescue Squadron, flying more than 100 missions. He and his brother Frank built Polly Ann Mobile Home Park in Dover, and he developed West Wind Estates I and West Wind Estates II. (R.M. Edgerly & Son)
WORDS OF WISDOM: “As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colors enough to paint the beautiful things I see.” – Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch post-Impressionist painter, March 30, 1853, to July 29, 1890. (Although Van Gogh created approximately 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life, he sold only one painting, “The Red Vineyard,” during his lifetime, dying from a self-inflicted gunshot at age 37.)