Notable New Hampshire Deaths: WWII Hero's Remains Returned From Philippines To Plymouth

By Staff Report, 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.

Edward A. DeSchuytner, 81, of Windham, died Oct. 30, 2025. He received his Ph.D. in cell biology from Boston College and conducted early work on tumor isoenzymes of alkaline phosphatase. He was a professor and dean at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, Mass., for 53 years, teaching anatomy, physiology and microbiology. (Carrier Family Funeral Home)

Susan Bell (Wilson) Durham, 84, of Hollis, died Oct. 29, 2025. A gardener, naturalist, conservationist and longtime member of the Unitarian Universal Congregation of Milford, she represented Hollis for eight years in the state legislature and for many years served on the town’s school, planning and zoning boards. She was also an active member of the Friends of the Hollis Social Library and the Hollis Garden and Hollis Women’s clubs for decades. Perhaps her most steadfast enthusiasm was for the Beaver Brook Association, having been a member for almost 50 years including time spent serving on the Board of Trustees. (Legacy.com)

William H. Elliott Jr., 89, of Freedom, died Oct. 25, 2025. He was an accredited hardware consultant and taught for 20 years in the door and hardware industry’s education program. He was president of the Door and Hardware Institute of USA and Canada in 2002. He was voted Grand Marshall of the 123rd Freedom Old Home Week in 2022 with his wife Maureen. He was volunteered for the Freedom Food Pantry and served on the Freedom Planning Board, the Community Club, The Village Store and the Historical Society. (Lord Funeral Home)

Stephen G. Ferranti, 65, of Bedford, died Oct. 30, 2025. He partnered with Dan Taylor of The Taylor Group, which grew into ManagedOps in Bedford. The company was a precursor to what is now known as cloud software. He was chief knowledge officer and had a hands-on role in presales and implementation consulting. ManagedOps remained successful, growing to several hundred employees, until its acquisition in 2002. He worked in positions at FinancialForce, before retiring in April 2021. (Wiggin-Purdy-McCooey-Dion Funeral Home)

Thomas V.A. Kelsey, 92, of Center Harbor, died Oct. 29, 2025. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps. He worked in the insurance industry, joining Chubb & Son Insurance in New York in 1956. He spent 36 years at Chubb, ultimately retiring as the executive vice president and chief underwriting officer of the Chubb Corporation in 1992. He was then president of School, College & University Underwriters, Ltd, Bermuda. He served on boards including the Chocorua Island Chapel Association, Squam Lakes Conservation Society, and Squam Lakes Science Center. A Dartmouth graduate, he served in several fundraising roles. When he lived in Summit, N.J., he served on the city council. (Brewitt Funeral Home)

William Kopka, 82, of Nashua, died Oct. 31, 2025. He was a U.S. Navy veteran and taught Latin and social studies at the former Spring Street Junior High School in Nashua for 11 years. He coached football and wrestling at Nashua High School and for many years coached Little League baseball, Biddy League Basketball, and Pop Warner League Football. He was an auditor for the Department of Defense, retiring in 1998. He returned to the classroom and taught social studies at Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua. He was an adjunct professor of accounting at Hesser College and Nashua Community College. He and his wife Despina owned and operated Kopka Tax Service. (Farwell Funeral Service)

Henry Hilton Packard, of Plymouth, who died at age 34 while a prisoner of war in the Philippines, was returned home 83 years after his death. He died Sept. 17, 1942, and recent advances in DNA technology allowed investigators to identify his remains, which were interred in a mass grave near the Cabanatuan prison camp. The prisoners buried there were re-interred after World War II in a Manila Military Cemetery. He served in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a sergeant and was captured by the Japanese in April of 1942 when they invaded the Bataan peninsula. Sgt. Packard was one of the 2,500 POWs who perished at the Cabanatuan camp after they were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Packard on Nov. 30, 2023. His remains were re-interred again, on Sept. 16, 2025, this time in his final resting place in a plot with his father, Fred W. Packard, in Riverside Cemetery in Plymouth. (Mayhew Funeral Homes)

Dr. Joan Grace White, 94, of Exeter, died Nov. 2, 2025. She earned her doctorate at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis and for nearly 40 years was a professor at the school. She worked with underprivileged youth in New York City at a children’s theater and as a camp director, which eventually led to her becoming a social worker. She was a certified teacher in QiGong and Tai Chi. (Remick & Gendron Funeral Home and Crematory)

WORDS OF WISDOM: “Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”
- Poet John McCrae, 1872-1918, from “In Flanders Fields”

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