New Hampshire

Notable New Hampshire Deaths: Longtime Waterville Valley Town Administrator

Published

6 months ago

September 12, 2025

Notable New Hampshire Deaths: Longtime Waterville Valley Town Administrator

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.

Phyllis M. (Ghidoni) Baker, 94, of Goshen, died Sept. 2, 2025. She served as Goshen town clerk and tax collector from 1961 to 1998, running the office out of her home for many years. She was a notary public and justice of the peace, conducting weddings at her house. Her husband served on the fire department for 50 years, and she answered emergency calls at their home, then would call firefighters by telephone to respond to the station. (Newton-Bartlett Funeral Home)

Walter Alexander Buchan, 83, of Exeter, died Sept. 3, 2025. He was a dentist in Nashua for more than five decades, in private practice. He earned a fellowship with the Academy of General Dentistry. (Remick & Gendron Funeral Home-Crematory)

Richard A. Cardner, 83, of Londonderry, died Sept. 4, 2025. He taught for the U.S. Department of Defense in Germany before becoming a guidance counselor at Salem High School in 1973. He was a driver’s education instructor and taught critical thinking courses through the New Hampshire higher education system. He was a founder of the Londonderry Dollar for Scholars chapter. (Carrier Family Funeral Home)

Mark Decoteau, 64, of Thornton, died Sept. 6, 2025. He was the longtime town manager of Waterville Valley. He graduated from West Point in 1983 and served as a U.S. Army officer. His oldest son Marc P. Decoteau was a U.S. Army soldier who was killed in military action in Afghanistan in 2010. Mark served in Lubec, Maine, as well as Farmington and Rochester, before he became town manager of Waterville Valley in 2001, staying for 24 years. (Mayhew Funeral Home)

Dana A. Hamel, 94, of Tuftonboro and North Palm Beach, Fla., died Sept. 4, 2025. He and his family have been benefactors of the University of New Hampshire, where the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research, the Hamel Student Recreation Center, and the Hamel Honors and Scholars College were named for him and his family. He has also funded several scholarships. He was an officer in the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Corps, then worked for Dow Chemical and Valtek Plastics Company before starting his own company with a friend in 1964. The Penn Corporation was a consumer products company in Princeton, N.J., where he served as chairman until the company’s sale in 1987. (Lord Funeral Home)

Dr. Wassfy Michael Hanna, 92, of Rye, died Sept. 2, 2025. After completing his medical training in Egypt, he moved to the United States in the early 1960s and for 57 years dedicated his work to Seacoast Mental Health Center in Portsmouth. He was medical director and also maintained a private practice in Portsmouth as a psychiatrist. (Remick & Gendron Funeral Home)

Newton Henry Kershaw Jr., 79, of Londonderry, died Sept. 5, 2025. He was an attorney who began his legal career at Devine, Millimet & Branch, P.A. in Manchester, where he specialized in ERISA law. In 1978, he founded The Legal Clinics in New Hampshire, which he ran for a decade before returning to Devine Millimet. He was president of the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire, president of the board of the Moore Center, and was a board member of the Krempels Foundation. (Lambert Funeral Home & Crematory)

Paul W. Kiah, 85, of Melvin Village, died Aug. 29, 2025. In 1960, he was a page for John F. Kennedy at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. He attended U.S. Army Aviation flight school in Fort Rucker, Ala., and joined the 82nd Airborne Aviation Battalion. He worked for the Gillette Company in Boston as a sales administrator and was promoted to an information system analyst in th.e president’s office. He and his family moved to Meredith in 1972 and purchased The Mug restaurant with two of his brothers-in-law. He became a Realtor with Nash Realty for 27 years. He was a member of the Meredith Kiwanis, Lions, VFW, and a director of the Meredith Chamber of Commerce. (Mayhew Funeral Home)

Richard W. Long, 78, of Laconia, died Sept. 7, 2025. He served in the U.S. Army National Guard from 1969 to 1974. He was executive vice president and teasurer at Laconia Savings Bank, where he was employed for 36 years. He was a Belknap County Commissioner and served on the Victory Lane Committee at N.H. International Speedway. He was a member of the Belknap County Sportsman Club, Lions Club, Belmont Rotary, Morning Star Lodge, Ammonoosuc Valley Fish & Game Club and the Bektash Shriners. (Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services)

James Lester Loomis, 75, of Dover, died Sept. 6, 2025. He was co-founder in 1989 of Portsmouth-based Bottomline Technologies, which grew into a global leader in electronic payment systems. As vice president and CFO, he helped guide the company to become publicly traded on the NASDAQ Exchange. He served on the board of directors from 2000 to 2016. He served on the board of the Nashua Boys and Girls Club and supported United Way initiatives through Nashua Corporation. In 2011, he and his wife Anne received the UNH Foundation’s Hubbard Family Award for Service to Philanthropy in recognition of their dedication. He was an avid supporter and volunteer for Northeast Passage. (Tasker Funeral Service)

Stanley G. Maksalla, 79, of Hooksett, died Sept. 5, 2025. He was a Certified Public Accountant licensed in New Hampshire and Maryland and had more than 45 years of experience in the public and private sectors. He owned a local accounting firm in New Hampshire acquired by McCafferty and Company of Nashua. He was a region controller for a publicly held company for nine years, as well as a manager and owner of several other businesses, including Anton’s Restaurant in Manchester, which he owned with his late wife Mary Anne. He was a chairman of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and a founding incorporator of the Nashua Police Athletic League. (Legacy.com)

Marie Hassett Mellin, 78, of Nashua, died Sept. 6, 2025. She taught at Nashua High School where she was instrumental in establishing the Advanced Placement History program. She was named New Hampshire Social Studies Teacher of the Year award in 2005. She retired in 2005. (Rochette Funeral Home & Cremation Services)

Captain Edward Charles Webster, U.S. Navy (Retired), 88, of Berlin, died Sept 9, 2025. He was supervisor of shipbuilding at Bath Iron Works in Maine, where he oversaw the construction and commissioning of key U.S. Navy frigates, including USS Klakring (FFG-42), Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) USS Robert G. Bradley (FFG-49). He was commanding officer of the U.S. Naval Base in Subic Bay in the Philippines. He worked after retiring from the Navy as a manager for VSE Corporation for 31 years. (Bryant Funeral Home & Crematory)

WORDS OF WISDOM: “Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” – George Eliot, pen name of novelist Mary Ann Evans, Nov. 22, 1819, to Dec. 22, 1880

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New Hampshire

N.H. woman accused of civil rights violation after allegedly shooting at lost man because he was Black

Published

3 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

N.H. woman accused of civil rights violation after allegedly shooting at lost man because he was Black

Local News

Diane Durgin, 67, is accused of shooting at a Black man who inadvertently drove to her property after a prearranged truck part sale, prosecutors said.

A New Hampshire woman is accused of violating the state’s Civil Rights Act four times after she allegedly shot at a man because he was Black, prosecutors said.

Diane Durgin, 67, of Weare, N.H. could face up to a $5,000 fine for each violation she is found to have committed, the office of New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a press release Tuesday.

Durgin is also charged with criminal threatening against a person with a deadly weapon and attempted first degree assault with a deadly weapon, Michael Garrity, a media representative for the New Hampshire Attorney General, said in an emailed statement to Boston.com.

Durgin had a final pre-trial conference last week, Garrity said.

In a civil complaint filed Tuesday, Durgin is accused of threatening physical force against the victim, the AG said. Prosecutors asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction barring Durgin from repeating her alleged behavior and from contacting the victim and his family.

During the morning hours of Oct. 20, 2024, the victim claims, he “mistakenly” drove to Durgin’s home after a prearranged purchase of a truck part with a seller online, prosecutors wrote as part of their request for an injunction.

When the man — whom prosecutors identified in court documents as X.G. — arrived, Durgin allegedly stepped out of her home and approached his car with a gun “holstered by her waist,” prosecutors wrote.

Upon noticing that X.G. was Black, Durgin allegedly “removed her gun and pointed it at X.G.,” prosecutors said in the injunction request.

While X.G. explained that he was lost, Durgin called the victim a “Black mother[expletive],” and threatened to “kill him,” prosecutors allege.

As the victim attempted to drive away, Durgin allegedly took her gun and fired two shots at the fleeing man’s car, missing both times, the AG’s office said.

While on the phone with a dispatcher, Durgin allegedly said she shot the man’s car because the victim is Black, the AG said.

“The guy is Black. And he, he…he says he’s meeting someone here and I think he’s coming here to steal,” Durgin allegedly said.

Police located X.G. and brought him to the Weare Police Department, stopping along the way at the correct seller’s home to complete the truck part purchase, prosecutors wrote in court documents.

To prove a violation of the New Hampshire Civil Rights Act, the AG must show that Durgin “interfered or attempted to interfere with the rights of the victim to engage in lawful activities by threatening to engage in or actually engage in physical force or violence, when such actual or threatening conduct was motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability,” prosecutors said.

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New Hampshire

Up to 4 inches of snow expected in NH tonight. See latest forecast

Published

15 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Up to 4 inches of snow expected in NH tonight. See latest forecast

It may be March, but winter in New Hampshire is far from over. Just one week after a blizzard tore through the state with heavy snow and high winds, the state is getting another round of snowfall.

The state will get three to five inches during the evening and night of Tuesday, March 3, says the National Weather Service (NWS) of Gray, Maine. While the accumulation will not be significant, the snowfall may cause dangerous road conditions and a layer of ice on the ground in certain parts of the state.

Here’s what to know before tonight’s snow in New Hampshire, including snow totals and timing.

When will it snow in NH tonight?

According to the NWS, it will start snowing in New Hampshire during mid-afternoon or early evening and continue through the night. Specifically, snow will arrive to the southern part of the state around 2-3 p.m., spreading northwards through the rest of New Hampshire by 5 p.m.

Rain or freezing rain will mix in later this evening across southern New Hampshire, creating a wintry mix. All precipitation should move out of the state by midnight.

Due to the timing of today’s snowfall, the Tuesday evening commute will be affected, with the NWS warning to slow down and exercise caution while driving.

How much snow will NH get tonight?

New Hampshire will get one to four inches of snow tonight, with one to two inches in northern New Hampshire, two to three inches in southern New Hampshire and three to four inches in the center of the state, with the possibility for five inches in localized areas.

In the Seacoast specifically, Portsmouth, Rye, Hampton and York are expected to get between two to three inches of snow, while Dover, Exeter and Rochester may get up to four.

The wintry mix may also cause a light glaze of ice across southern New Hampshire.

NH weather watches and warnings

The NWS has issued a winter weather advisory for the state of New Hampshire, in effect from 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3 through 4 a.m. on Wednesday, March 4.