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.

Judith Holmes Collins, 77,  of Milan, died Dec. 23, 2024. She was a registered nurse and was director of nursing at St. Vincent de Paul Nursing Home, health occupations teacher at Berlin High School, clinical supervisor at Androscoggin Valley Home Health Services and retiring as school nurse at Milan Village School. (Bryant Funeral Homes & Crematory)

Wayne H. Cross, 81 of North Haverhill, died Dec. 25, 2024. He worked for the Colebrook Police Department for more than 25 years and retired as police chief in 1993. (Bailey Funeral Home)

Thomas P. Friel, 65, of Amherst, died Dec. 24, 2024. He worked in the Friel family’s golf business and was a member of the Independence Rowing Club, where he spearheaded the project to build a boathouse, later renamed the Thomas P. Friel Boathouse. He was a board member and former president of Gateways Community Services in Nashua. (Davis Funeral Home)

George M. Kimionakis, 72, of Allenstown, died Dec. 26, 2024. He was the owner of Chantilly’s Restaurant for many years. (Legacy.com)

Lee G. Lajoie, 62, of Pembroke, died Dec. 24, 2024. He worked for Public Service Company of NH and later was a manager of systems resiliency for Eversource, retiring in 2021. He skated with the Laconia Hockey Legends for more than 20 years and was certified as a USA Hockey official. He volunteered for the Capital Regional Food Program and the Concord Community Players. He was awarded the Volunteer Hero Award by the Capital Region Food program and was given the Osy Strong award by the Concord Community Players for service above and beyond the duties of membership. (Waters Funeral Home)

David A. Learned, 82, of Bradford, died Dec. 30, 2024. He served for more than 30 years in the U.S. Coast Guard and retired in 1991 at the rank of senior chief petty officer. He then worked as a N.H. Marine Patrol officer on Squam Lake and as a sergeant in the Rumney Police Department. (Knight Funeral Homes & Crematory White River Junction, Vt.)

Rebecca Chandler Luce, 70, of Grantham, died Dec. 27, 2024. She taught in several school districts including  Lebanon, Plainfield, and Windsor. She retired from the Ray School in Hanover in 2023. She conducted the Upper Valley Community Band and the Children’s Chorus of the Upper Valley Music Center. (Ricker Funeral Home)

Robert McKisson Mennel, 86, of Portsmouth, died Dec. 26, 2024. He was a professor of history at UNH for 35 years. He established the UNH Honors Program in 1985 and directed the program for 20 years. He wrote “Thorns and Thistles: Juvenile Delinquents in the United States, 1825–1940” (University Press of New England, 1973) and co-edited a multivolume “Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History” (Harvard University Press, 1970–1974). He also co-edited a volume of the correspondence of Supreme Court Justices Felix Frankfurter and Oliver Wendell Holmes (University Press of New England, 1996). Several diaries and letters he found in an old Nova Scotia house he owned led to the publication of “Testimonies and Secrets: The Story of a Nova Scotia Family, 1844–1977” (University of Toronto Press, 2013), which tells a social history of Nova Scotia through the lives of three generations in that house. (J. Verne Wood Funeral Home – Buckminster Chapel)

Suresh C. Mathur, 94, of Auburn and formerly of Manchester, died Jan. 2, 2025. A native of India, he moved to the U.S. in 1958 and received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the University of Texas in Austin.  He worked at Lowell Technological Institute (now UMass Lowell), retiring in 1996. He performed Indian classical music and gave music lessons. He played in Indian music concerts throughout New England and was also a regular accompanist on the Indian bamboo flute for the Triveni School of Dance for more than 20 years. (Legacy.com)

William Pond, 88, of Meredith, died Dec. 30, 2024. He served on the Ashland, Mass., Police Department for 22 years and was a sergeant. When he moved to Meredith, he was president of the Meredith Historical Society for six years. He was a trustee for the First Congregational Church and a past master at the Chocorua Lodge of Masons. (Mayhew Funeral Homes and Crematorium)

James E. Robertson, 89, of Keene, died Dec. 16, 2024. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves until 1962 and worked in the family business,  Cheshire Oil Company.  He owned T-Bird Mini-Mart and Keene Mini Storage. He  was a ,member of the National Oil Jobbers Council, New England Fuel Institute, and Cheshire County Fuel Oil Dealers. In 1981, the New Hampshire Petroleum Council recognized him as Oil Man of the Year. He a member and former president of the United Way, Keene Rotary Club, and Keene Country Club. He served on the boards of the Ashuelot National Bank, Cheshire Medical Center, and Keene Chamber of Commerce. (DiLuzio Foley And Fletcher Funeral Homes

Nancy J. Van Uden, 78, of Bedford, died Dec. 24, 2024. She taught fifth grade at Reeds Ferry Elementary School and was a driver’s education teacher for the City of Manchester. She retired from Southside Middle School, Manchester, in 2006. She was a math teacher and worked at Southside for 38 years. (Legacy.com)

WORDS OF WISDOM: “Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.” – Oscar Wilde, Irish poet and playwright, Oct. 16, 1854, to Nov. 30, 1900