Notable NH Deaths: Portsmouth Philanthropist Shulman; Nurses From Bedford And Lebanon

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.

Sandra Grace “Sandy” Dickau, 75, of Lebanon, died Dec. 10, 2025. She was a nurse in Cheverly, Md., and later moved to New Hampshire to work at Franklin Regional Hospital in the early 1970s. In the early 1980s, she returned to Maryland to pursue an advanced nursing degree, then returned to New Hampshire in 1983 and became director of adult critical care at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She later served as interim senior nurse executive before transitioning to the role of vice president of patient and family resources., which was expanded to include nutrition services and volunteer services. She also was a part of team that was focused on improving geriatric care at DHMC. She led the reorganization of the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital Home Health Agency into the Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice of Vermont and New Hampshire (VNA/VNH) and continued her involvement as a member of its board of directors. She was appointed to the state Board of Nursing in the late 1980s and early 1990s. (Ricker Funeral Homes & Crematory)

Donald Byrne McDonah, M.D., FCFP, FAAHPM, 69, of Nashua, died Nov. 30, 2025. He was a family physician in New Brunswick and opened the palliative care unit at the Saint John Regional Hospital. He was a founding member of the Canadian Palliative Care Association and president of the New Brunswick College of Family Physicians. He moved to Nashua in 1994 and practiced family medicine and began a palliative care program at St. Joseph Hospital. He was a United Way volunteer, member of the N.H. Hospice Alliance, a board member for Granite State Independent Living, and a board member and president of SymphonyNH. (Legacy.com)

Michael A. Provost, 73, of Newmarket, died Dec. 4, 2025. He once owned the Rockingham Ballroom and Victoria Catering. He guided the Lamprey Heritage Tours in Newmarket. Many years he worked on the Economic Development Initiatives with the National Main Street Program in communities of Newmarket, Jaffrey, Dover and Rochester. (Kent & Pelczar Funeral Home & Crematory)

Robert Richard, 93, of Dover, died Dec. 2, 2025. He was the 2000 Dover Citizen of the Year and served for many years as president of D.F. Richard, a heating oil, propane and air conditioning business. He contributed his time to the Elks, Moose, St. Jean Society, Knights of Columbus, Rotary, N.H. Soap Box Derby and as a lector and eucharistic minister at the Parish of the Assumption. He called Bingo for 40 years at St. Charles Church, St. Mary’s Church and St. Thomas Aquinas High School. (Tasker Funeral Home)

Anne (Willey) Sanderson, 89, of Manchester, died Dec. 4, 2025. She was director of education for Brookside Church in Manchester. She led refugee resettlement efforts in New Hampshire for 25 years and retired as director of the International Institute of New Hampshire. (Legacy.com)

Steven Shulman, 84, of Los Angeles and formerly of Portsmouth, died Dec. 8, 2025. He began his career at Burnham & Co., then joined Wheelabrator-Frye and later the Signal Companies. In 1984, he founded The Hampton Group, becoming an investor, adviser, and board member to companies across the United States in industries ranging from manufacturing and aerospace to food supply, real estate, and medical technology. He was well-known in New Hampshire Democratic politics. He was a trustee and vice chairman of the board at Stevens Institute of Technology, where he endowed the Steven Shulman ’62 Chair for Business Leadership. In honor of his late first wife, he created the Pamela Shulman Professor of European and Holocaust Studies at the University of New Hampshire. He also endowed the Pamela Shulman Center for Jewish Education at Temple Israel in Portsmouth. (J. Verne Wood Funeral Home - Buckminster Chapel)

Ann Zora St. Martin Stout, 67, of Newport, died Dec. 3, 2025. She was an active member of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, and the church led to her co-founding Mount Royal Academy in 1993. She was a member of the Newport Historical Society, the Library Arts Center and the Amalgamated Printing Association. She wrote a weekly column in the Intertown Record as well as regular articles for the Newport Times and Soonipi Magazine. She was a writer for more than 40 years, contributing to the Argus Champion and Eagle Times, and self-publishing two books — an alphabet book about the town of Newport and another about the history of stained-glass windows in St. Patrick’s Church. (Newton-Bartlett Funeral Home)

Theodore “Ted” Symonowicz, 78, of Jaffrey, died Dec. 2, 2025. He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy and taught in Pittsburg and then at ConVal High School in Peterborough, where he taught physical education and coached the boys' baseball team. He was a safety engineer for the N.H. Hospital Association and later owned his own lawn care business. Earlier in his career, he was superintendent of Candia Woods Golf Links and Monadnock Country Club. (Cournoyer Funeral Home & Cremation Center)

Thomas Armand Tardif, 82, of Laconia, died Dec. 7, 2025. He served as a Laconia city councilman for Ward 2 and served a two-year term as mayor of Laconia from 1990 to 1992. He worked in the telecommunications industry for New England Telephone, NYNEX, and retired as a microwave technician for Verizon. He was an advocate of the state’s right-to-know law and represented himself in numerous legal proceedings. He was a champion for fair taxation and fiscal responsibility and had many letters to the editor published in the Laconia Daily Sun. (Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services)

Patricia E. Tucker, of Ashland, died Dec. 5. For 35 years, she was Ashland’s town clerk and tax collector. She was a member of the New Hampshire Town Clerk/Tax Collectors Association, serving as president. She was also a longtime member of the Ashland Woman’s Club. (Dupuis Funeral Home)

Howard Alvin Wheeler, 81, of Goffstown, died Dec. 5, 2025. He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy, serving as a helicopter pilot and was special assistant to Admiral William J. Crowe Jr. in Naples, Italy. He was editor of Naval Aviation News magazine and wrote the book “Attack Helicopters,” published in 1988. He retired at the rank of commander and worked for defense consulting and tech firms and his business Aerofile Enterprises in Alexandria, Va. He moved to Goffstown in 2003. He was a Granite State Ambassador and volunteered with the Catholic Medical Center, Lions Club, Goffstown FEMA CERT, and Palace Theater. (Connor-Healy Funeral Home and Cremation Center)

Margaret Eva Wiggin, 92, of Bedford, died Dec. 7, 2025. She was pediatric head nurse at Nashua Memorial Hospital in Nashua. She served as president of the Bedford Historical Society, member of the Molly Stark Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Friends of Stark Park. She was an usher at the Palace Theatre for many years. (Legacy.com)

WORDS OF WISDOM: "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." - Mark Twain, American writer and humorist, Nov. 30, 1835, to April 21, 1910

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