Richard A. Minard Sr.

Richard A Minard, Sr., of Keene and Alstead, died on December 31, 2011, from complications related to pneumonia. He was two weeks shy of 85 and had spent all of his life with a sharp mind, good health, and gentle humor.

Dick was born on January 12, 1927 in Boston and grew up in Auburndale, Mass., the son of Elbridge and Marion (Healy) Minard. After graduating from Newton High School, at 17 he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was bound for Europe until an injury kept him stateside through the War. The GI Bill paid for his education as a chemical engineer at Harvard College. He graduated in 1949 and started working in Boston's burgeoning high-tech industries for firms that were supplying technology and products to the food industry and the space program.

He married Betty Ann (Hamlin) Minard in 1951. They lived in Needham, Mass., and had three children by 1957. Betty died on February 22, 2011, after nearly 60 years of marriage.

Dick took a job at MPB in Keene in 1965 and the family moved to Alstead Center. Dick served on the Fall Mountain Regional School Board and then for many years on the Alstead Zoning Board of Adjustment. In the early 1970s he changed careers, becoming an economic development expert for the New Hampshire Office of Economic Opportunity and then as a consultant to the Tri-County Community Action Agency in Berlin, where he helped establish local production of affordable housing in northern Coos County. He later returned to technology work until he retired in 1991.

His work with New Hampshire's low-income residents, coupled with the Watergate scandal, made Dick a staunch Democrat for the rest of his life. He and Betty were active members of the Cheshire County Democrats, campaigning for local candidates outside the polls in Alstead at every election, and fervent keepers of the vigil for peace on Keene's Central Square over the last decade. The Cheshire County Democrats awarded Dick and Betty the Pat and Ron Russell Award for their volunteer service in 2004.

In a note to his college classmates in 1974, Dick wrote: "For the last two years I have been involved in economic development work with low income people in New Hampshire. The rewards from this have been immense in a non-financial way: my dues to the golf club may not be up to date, but they have been paid in full to society. Strangely enough I find myself regarded as a strong conservative by my confreres--and a bit of a radical by my former industrial associates. I have seen at least two different worlds since graduating from Harvard, and with luck may see a few more!"

Dick was a reader of history, a lover of music, a hunter, a bee keeper, and a frequent writer of letters to the editor. He was a proud father and grandfather but is perhaps most known for the care he bestowed on Betty in later years. They moved to Bentley Commons in Keene in the fall of 2009.

Dick is survived by his three children, their spouses, and six grandchildren: Faith Minard and Stephen Blatt and their sons, Zachary and Ben of Bedford, NH;, Richard, Jr., and Susanna Minard and their son, Alden, of Bow, NH.; and Randall and Patricia Minard and their daughters, Leeann, May, and Amy, of Keene, NH.

A celebration of Dick's life will be held in Alstead at a time to be announced later.

Arrangements under the direction of Foley Funeral Home, Keene, NH.