Notable New Hampshire Deaths: A Gym In Newmarket Has Melvin Cross's Name On It

By InDepth NH

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.

Adam Harris Bernstein, 55, of Bedford, died Aug. 11, 2025. He was a private criminal defense attorney who began his legal career as a public defender in 1999. In 2006, he co-founded the law firm Bernstein, Bartis & Mello in Nashua. The firm evolved into Bernstein & Mello, PLLC in 2011. (Lambert Funeral Home)

Nancy Caldwell (Bunten) Frost, 91, of Dunbarton, died Aug. 9, 2025. She was a member of the Dunbarton Historical Society, serving as director. She was a trustee for the Harriet Stark Trust, which maintained Stark Cemetery in Dunbarton. She also worked with Dunbarton's Historical Awareness Committee to document some of Dunbarton's town history. She worked for the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services, retiring in 1999. She was organist at the First Baptist Church in Goffstown and for many years at the Immanuel Community Church in Concord. (Bennett Funeral Home)

Charles Mansfield Cobb, 85, of Hancock, died Aug. 7, 2025. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in 1961, stationed in Thailand, then joined the U.S. Army's Intelligence Service and was stationed in New York. He was a corporate liaison for IBM. He and his wife, Dudley Germaine Cobb, had an antiques business in Hancock, operated from a historic 1790 cape with a dining room painted by famous itinerant artist Rufus Porter. They held auctions at a downtown Peterborough business and were known as The Cobbs Auctioneers. He supported many charitable organizations including the Jaffrey Civics Center, Peterborough Players, and Monadnock Music, where he was auctioneer and antiques appraiser for more than 40 years. (Jellison Funeral Home and Cremation Services)

Melvin A. Cross, 89, of Portsmouth and formerly of Exeter, died Aug. 5, 2025. He was physical education teacher and athletic director at Newmarket High School. He coached the basketball team that he led to state championships in 1960 and 1979. The Newmarket High School gym was named for him. He had a second career managing the club house at Rockingham Race Track in Salem. (Kent & Pelczar Funeral Home & Crematory)

Clermont B. Drouin, 84, of Gorham, died Aug. 11, 2025. For more than 50 years, he owned and operated Clermont Trucking, which included logging, sand and gravel operations, and also owned Paradise Mobile Home Park. He once owned and operated Gorham Oil. (Bryant Funeral Home)

Kenneth Nelson Fernald, 85, of Newfields, died Aug. 6, 2025. A U.S. Air Force veteran, he was a firefighter with the Greenland Volunteer Fire Department and was fire chief from 1978 to 1987. He was emergency management director for the Town of Greenland until 2015. He worked for Kidder Press in Dover. The company became Moore Business Equipment, and he was corporate human resources manager, retiring in 2000. He was on the adjunct faculty at MacIntosh College, Hesser College, and Southern New Hampshire University, teaching business and human science courses. He was for more than 40 years an independent weather observer for the state. (J. Verne Wood Funeral Home – Buckminster Chapel)

Eleanor Rebecca Harriger, 88, of Epsom, died Aug. 11, 2025. She was a professor at Ithaca College and a physical education teacher in the Hollis School District before becoming a principal in Hollis. She was for many years principal at Pembroke Hill School and principal in the Jaffrey-Rindge School District, retiring in 1996. She was an adjunct professor at Notre Dame College in Manchester. (Roan Family Funeral Home)

Barbara Underwood, 93, of Lancaster, died Aug. 9, 2025. She began her career in publishing in New York with Sports Illustrated at Time Inc. While living in Concord, she was active in the League of Women Voters, served on the Ways & Means Committee in the New Hampshire Legislature, and helped stop construction of a massive coastal oil refinery. She also worked to preserve Concord's Old Post Office, now the Legislative Office Building, and served on the Concord City Council. She enjoyed many seasons in Sugar Hill, where she helped start the "Lupine Lunch on the Lawn." (Legacy.com)

WORDS OF WISDOM: “Those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch.” – Jack Thorne (born Dec. 6, 1978), British playwright, screenwriter, and producer

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.