obits

Foster M. Fargo, Jr. of Lincoln, the beloved husband for 52 years of former state Senator Susan Cooley Fargo, died suddenly and unexpectedly due to a cardiovascular event on April 14. He was 76.

Born in Jacksonville, Fla., on March 3, 1943, he was the son of Ruth (Reed) Savage and the late Foster M. Fargo, Sr., a U.S. Navy pilot who died during World War II shortly after his son’s birth. Foster was raised by his mother and her second husband Harlow Dow Savage Jr., whom he adored, and lived in New York, N.Y., Riverside, Conn., and West Hartford, Conn. through his childhood years.

After graduating from Philips Exeter Academy in 1960 and Yale College in 1964, he completed a master’s degree in electrical engineering at MIT and an MBA at Harvard Business School. He worked in the emerging computer technology industry from the early 1970s and was an innovator in the development of computer display and output systems, in particular, of ink jet printer technology.

Foster retired in 2004 and committed his time to family. He was recognized by all who knew him for his unassuming brilliance and a kind, humble, stalwart presence that created spaces in which others could thrive. Even remote acquaintances commented on the twinkle in his eye.

Foster was an accomplished cook, an avid reader of mystery novels, and a wizard at solving complicated puzzles. He was a consummate putterer who could build or fix almost anything. Many in Lincoln will remember him mowing and tending the large meadow along Trapelo Road behind the Fargo home.

In addition to his wife, he leaves behind his devoted daughter, Amanda Reed Fargo of Lincoln; his proud grandson, Brady Foster Fargo (who changed his middle name to honor Foster), also of Lincoln; one sister, Seddon Reed Savage and her husband William Carl Cooley (his wife’s brother) of Concord, N.H.; his sister-in law Marcia Cooley Blevins of McMinnville, Ore.; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews.

A celebration of Foster’s life will be held on Saturday, May 11 at 11 a.m. at the First Parish in Lincoln. A private burial will be held at Lincoln Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to Trustees of the Reservation, Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, or the First Parish of Lincoln.

Arrangements are under the care of Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord. To share a remembrance or to send a condolence in his online guestbook, please click here.

Nathan Alexander Soukup, 17, passed away suddenly on Sunday, April 14. He was the loving son of Mark Alexander and Kimberly Ann (Snelson) Soukup. He was born in Cambridge on September 19, 2001. His family moved to Lincoln where he attended Lincoln Nursery School, Lincoln Public Schools, the Fenn School in Concord, and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, where he was a junior.

A lifelong resident of Lincoln, Nathan was into many local sports and outdoor activities. He was the troop leader of Lincoln Boy Scout Troop 127 and was in the process of completing the Eagle Scout rank. Nathan was an honor roll student and a junior member of the Lincoln Historical Society. 

Nathan was passionate about history, especially as it related to his lifelong hometown. He had encyclopedic knowledge of the roads, woods, and antique homes of Lincoln, and used this information to create beautifully illustrated maps of how the town appeared in past centuries. He located former privies on historical homesites and dug for bottles, earthenware, and tools used by the town’s earliest settlers. He catalogued and researched the history of every treasure he found and took immense pride in his archaeological finds.

In addition to his passion for history, Nathan was a driven honor roll student and formidable chess player. As a competitive athlete, he was a member of the varsity crew team, the varsity wrestling team, and the varsity cross-country team. He was also an adventurer, impressing all on a family trip to Wyoming — the only one to complete the top tier of the zip line challenge, confidently scaling the mountain face and bounding down trails on mountain bike.

Nathan’s summers were spent at his beloved Camp Mowglis on Newfound Lake in NH, where he began as camper, graduated with the rarely awarded Wolf’s Paw Badge, and continued as a junior staffer. Memories of the passionate, intelligent, adventurous, and sensitive young man Nathan was will carry on with all who love him.

In addition to his parents Kimberly and Mark, Nathan is survived by his brothers Nicholas, Connor, Colin, and Johnnie Soukup. He is survived on his mother’s side by his grandmother, Joan Snelson of Bedford; his uncle Brian Snelson, aunt Ann-Marie and cousins Gina, Carley, and Thomas of Chelmsford; uncle Craig Snelson, aunt Lynda, and cousins Malakai, Xander, and Liliana of Rochester, N.H.; and aunt Kerri L’Italien, uncle Ken, and cousins Kenny and Kyle of Dunstable.

He is survived on his father’s side by his grandfather, Michael Soukup, grandmother Linda and cousins Evan and Jessica of Blue Hill, Maine; grandmother Jane Soukup and grandfather Peter Smith of Dover, Mass.; and aunt Rebecca Eiler, uncle David, and cousins James and Lauren of Hanover, N.H. Nathan is also survived by dear friends and members of the Lincoln community too numerous to mention.

Funeral services will be Saturday, April 20 at 2 p.m. in the Trinitarian-Congregational Church, 54 Walden St, Concord. Interment to follow in Lincoln Cemetery. Visiting hours on Friday, April 19 from 4–7 p.m. in the Concord Funeral Home, 74 Belknap St., Concord.

Donations in Nathan’s memory may be made to the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation 
by clicking here. 

David Roswell Andrysiak, age 18, died peacefully at home in Lincoln on March 13, 2019, with his parents by his side. Born on November 30, 2000, he was the beloved son of Christopher and Sarah (Donaldson) Andrysiak. He is also survived by an adoring extended family that he loved deeply.

David attended the Middlesex School in Concord, where he relished academic pursuits (particularly math), the Jazz Band, sports, and good friends. Blessed with a quick wit and kind heart, David formed deep relationships with peers, mentors, and teachers. He was eager to return to school in the fall of 2018 for his senior year, but health issues intervened.

David was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor when he was a fourth-grader at the Fenn School. He never let the tumor define him. Through years of chemotherapy and progressive loss of vision caused by the tumor, David demonstrated grace, resilience, and adaptability. When vision loss impaired his baseball-hitting skills, he dedicated himself to becoming an excellent pitcher instead. After additional vision loss made baseball (his favorite sport) unsafe, David shifted to golf. “I knew this day would come, it’s okay,” he said. 

David spent six summers at Camp Becket as a camper and counselor, enjoying time spent outdoors and the strong community. In August, David’s tumor unexpectedly hemorrhaged while he was working at camp. The Becket community saved his life that day; over the next seven months, Becket friends lifted David’s spirits with weekly visits full of laughs and reminiscences. 

Thanks to the generosity of Middlesex School and David’s determination, he returned to campus to audit two classes in early 2019. Greeting friends, making music, and taking classes gave David moments of great joy even as his condition worsened.

While David lost his memory and his mental agility, his grace, gratitude, and kindness remained. “Thank you”, “How are you?”, “That was so nice for him to visit”: these were David’s words during the pain and confusion of his final weeks.

Hard-working, bright, and witty, David leaned in to life. Whether a subject he loved or disliked, a game he was winning or losing, David showed positive attitude, dry humor, and resilience. He could be counted on for a timely quip, an act of inclusiveness, or the grit to get through the final stretch. 

David most enjoyed baseball (playing and analyzing), school (working hard and doing well in the company of friends), music (listening, playing, composing), his dogs, and time with friends around a campfire. He always wanted to stay “in the game” even if that meant taking up a new position, new sport, or new instrument.

So many hearts are broken by David’s death. The Andrysiak and Donaldson families, as well as friends, mentors, and teachers, will miss him greatly.

Family and friends will gather to celebrate David’s life on Sunday, May 5 at 2 p.m. at the Middlesex School Chapel in Concord. Gifts in David’s memory may be made to support financial aid at two institutions that he loved: the David Andrysiak Scholarship Fund at Camp Becket, Becket-Chimney Corners YMCA, 748 Hamilton Rd., Becket, MA 01223, and the David Andrysiak ’19 Scholarship Fund at Middlesex School, 1400 Lowell Road, Concord, MA 01742.

Arrangements are under the care of Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord.  To share a remembrance or to send a condolence in David’s online guestbook, please visit www.DeeFuneralHome.com.  

Jennie Ciraso, 95 (February 24) — click here for obituary.

Richard Norcross Close, 95 (February 23) — click here for obituary.

Theresa Panetta (February 21) — click here for obituary.

Richard Johnson, 81 (January 31) — click here for obituary.

John Lee, 79 (January 29) — click here for obituary.

Dominick “Jim” Arena of Hudson, police and fire chief in Lincoln from 1976–1994, died on March 3 at age 89. He began his career with the Massachusetts State Police in Walpole and later served as the chief of police in Essex Junction, Vt., Edgartown, Mass., and Lincoln, where he also served as the fire chief. Calling hours and funeral starting at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 9 at the Tighe Hamilton Regional Funeral Home (50 Central St., Hudson). Click here for full obituary.

Eleanor Fitzgerald, 79 (February 17) — educator, realtor, and town volunteer. Click here for obituary and February 21 funeral arrangements.

John E. Howard, 90 (January 26) — had dental practice in Manchester-by-the-Sea. Click here for obituary.

Theodore Dreier Jr., 89 (February 4) — longtime psychiatrist at McLean Hospital. Click here for obituary.

Jane Langton

Jane Langton, 95, a prolific mystery writer and illustrator, died in hospice care near her home in Lincoln on December 29. She received the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award in 2017 for her career, which include numerous books set in New England and specifically the Concord area. Click here for full obituary (New York Times).

Carol Seeckts

There will be visiting hours on Friday, Jan. 4 from 4–7 p.m. in the Dee Funeral Home (27 Bedford St., Concord) for Carol “Lee” Seeckts, a certified nursing assistant and mother of four who died of cancer on December 25. She graduated from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in 1962 and lived most recently in Acton. A funeral service will take place at the Dee Funeral Home on Saturday, Jan. 5 at 11 a.m. followed immediately by an end-of-life celebration at the Pierce House in Lincoln. Click here for full obituary. 

John Ritsher

Services will be held on Monday, Dec. 31 at 11 a.m. at First Parish Church, 24 River St., Norwell for John Ritsher, a Norwell resident and former Lincoln Board of Selectman member who died on December 10 at age 88. A former senior partner at Ropes & Gray, he and his family lived in a Lincoln home he designed with famed architect Henry Hoover. Click here for full obituary. 

 

A public memorial service will be held at Pierce House in Lincoln on January 26, 2019 at 1 p.m. for Ruth Johnstone Wales. The former Christian Science Monitor page 1 editor and long-time Lincoln Historical District Commission chair passed away shortly before her 91st birthday, on December 2 in Belmont, with two of her daughters by her side.

Ruth was a purposeful planner, meticulous and particular, for whom making contributions to society was extremely important. She was independent and encouraged independence in her children. She had high expectations for herself and others, but was extremely supportive to family and friends.  She was politically liberal but personally conservative — frugal and self-sacrificing, while remaining generous to those she loved. 

Ruth, the daughter of Frederika Ammarell Johnstone and Robert Montgomery Johnstone, was born in Hollis, Queens in New York City on Christmas Day in 1927. Her father was a businessman and her mother was an artist. She was raised a Christian Scientist and remained faithful to her beliefs as a long-time member of the First Church of Christ Scientist in Concord.

After graduating from high school, Ruth won a scholarship to University of Chicago, where she received her bachelor’s degree. Her lifelong love of learning continuing through graduate school at Northeastern University, where she received her master’s degree in education, and after her working career was over, she was an avid participant in the Harvard University Institute for Learning in Retirement.

Ruth met R. Langdon Wales while working at the Christian Science Monitor in Boston after college and married him in Hollis, N.Y., on September 9, 1951. They enjoyed a loving relationship that produced four children: Roland, Rebecca and twins, Amy and Rachel.  Langdon was a mechanical engineer and inventor and his work took them to Reading, Mass., then briefly to East Aurora, N.Y., before settling in Lincoln, where they built their dream home — a mid-century Modern house designed by architects Hoover & Hill on two acres in the Brown’s Wood neighborhood. Amy and Rachel were born there shortly after the family moved there in 1959. For 57 years, Ruth continued living at 18 Moccasin Hill, nestled in the woods above Valley Pond, where she loved to swim, in the home where she and Lang had raised their family.

Ruth’s work life took hold after her younger daughters entered school and she taught grade school at nearby Hanscom Air Force Base. She then became a technical editor for Mitre Corp., making use of her love of words and attention to detail. From there she returned to the Christian Science Monitor as an editor, working her way up to editing the front page of the daily newspaper and later became editor of the international edition. Ruth considered her time at the Monitor to be her dream job and found it enormously exciting and fulfilling. She continued working there until 2001, retiring at age 74.

Ruth and Lang maintained an active social life, taking up Scottish country dancing with a Concord group that held weekly dances, a New Year’s Eve Hogmanay, regional balls in full regalia, weekend dancing retreats in New Hampshire — and even world travel with Scottish Dancing Tours. 

They took their young family on outdoor adventures, frequently canoeing, camping and hiking, climbing a majority of the peaks of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. As the children grew up and left the nest, Ruth began to travel internationally with Lang, which she loved. Taking advantage of Lang’s work in Italy, they also traveled to Germany, Russia, Sweden, England, and Scotland, and also to southern Africa to visit their daughter in the Peace Corps. 

Both made contributions to their community, with Lang active on the Planning Commission and Ruth active with the Lincoln League of Women Voters and representing Lincoln on the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School Committee. Long after her term ended, she referred to “my school” and enjoyed taking her visitors on tours.

Both Ruth and Lang enjoyed early music, and Ruth learned to play the harpsichord that Lang started building in their Lincoln home (it was finished by Peter Watchhorn after Lang’s death). Her time with Lang was cut short in 1989 when he died unexpectedly at age 62. She continued on, working at the Monitor and following her interests with friends and family. She purchased a small condo in the Fenway area of Boston to be closer to the Monitor.

An avid appreciator of the arts, Ruth enjoyed listening to classical music at the nearby Boston Symphony and the Boston Ballet, and going to numerous theater performances with a friend or family member, as she had previously done with Lang. In retirement, she frequently used her condo as home base during the week while attending classes at Harvard.

She continued to travel throughout the United States, visiting her college roommate Sally Raisbeck in Hawaii and going on tours with groups to England, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand and with her daughter Rebecca to Kenya, Tanzania, Belize, Turkey, Greece, and Italy.

An avid reader, Ruth favored classics, murder mysteries, female authors, biographies, and local history and encouraged all family members to attend college, helping nearly all of her grandchildren, in addition to her own children, earn a bachelor’s degree or greater.

She enhanced the native plants in her landscape and loved the woods of Lincoln. She frequently visited Lincoln Conservation lands as well as Great Meadows in Concord for walks and wildlife.  In addition to her swims at Valley Pond, she loved to eat outdoors in her screen house, rain or shine, temperature permitting.

Ruth with her good friend Lucretia Giese and others were passionate preservers of architectural heritage on the Lincoln Historical District and Lincoln Historical Commission. She and Lang were founding members and advocates for Brown’s Wood preservation, houses, and history.  Her commitment extended to carefully maintaining their home on Moccasin Hill and preserving its original design features with the help of artisan, woodworker, and carpenter Norman Levey, who ran his business out of Lang’s large garage shop for decades.

Ruth’s artistic talents included painting, hooked rugs, sewing, calligraphy, silkscreening, and sketch-booking. She was a collector of art produced by talented friends and acquaintances. An involuntary collector of owls that began with concrete “Howie” (who “lived” outside and looked in through a window next to a door of the house, and was named for Howland Owl of Pogo fame), Ruth found herself identified as a lover of owls. Howie inspired family and friends to search the world for owls to give her, and her collection of owls in all sizes and forms numbered in the hundreds.

Ruth was passionate about family and made a family genealogy book for each of her children with many details about five main branches of the family. She and Lang had traveled to Scotland to learn more family history and later to Schwabendorf, Germany for a 300th anniversary for all descendants. She loved family reunions and encouraged children and their kids to gather every five years in a new special place — Cape Cod cabins, Sturbridge Village, Saddleback Maine cottages, Blue Heron Maple Sugar Farm and Stump Sprouts cross-country ski lodge in Western Mass, Maho Bay Camps on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Wayside Inn in Sudbury, and, naturally, in Lincoln. Thanks to these family gatherings, her six grandchildren from three households are all close friends. A number of her children’s friends and partners looked up to her as a sort of second mom, including Peg Rawson Shealy, Camila Akerlund, and Terri Young, and eagerly befriended adult friends of her children and learned about their lives and welcomed their children.

Ruth is survived by her son Roland and his wife Donna; daughter Rebecca and her partner Chuck; daughter Amy; daughter Rachel; and grandchildren Marissa (with husband Amit), Benjamin, Fenic, Carin, Christopher, and Robert. Also surviving are Ruth’s nephews, children of brother Robert Johnstone and wife Peggy, now deceased: Doug (with wife Karen, son Brian with his wife Dariana, and grandson Avery), and Richard (with wife Kathy and children Danny and Sarah, with her husband Scott and children Cameron and Everett).

Ruth is also survived by lifelong friends, Phyllis Rappaport of Kalamazoo, Mich., and Marie Tegeler of Hingham, who first met because their three mothers were friendly. The three stayed in close touch over many years. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to Massachusetts Audubon Society (click here to donate, or click here to leave remembrances and condolences.

Services will be held at Douglass Funeral Home at 51 Worthen Rd. in Lexington on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 9:45 a.m. for Eric Olson of Lincoln (formerly of Lexington), who passed away November 24. he leaves four children (Matthew, Lincoln resident Margaret, Sigrid, and Charles) and four grandchildren (Katherine and Erik Svetlichny and Benjamin and Peter Price-Olson). He was preceded in death by his wife of nearly 60 years, Setha G. Olson.

Born June 4, 1925, the only child of hardworking but poor Swedish immigrants, Eric was raised in Montclair, N.J. during the Great Depression, and by way of his intelligence and hard work was able to win a full scholarship to Columbia University, shortly before entering the U.S. Army in 1943. He trained in the artillery and never saw combat, but was scheduled to participate in the invasion of the Japanese home islands when Japan surrendered.

After the war, he graduated from Columbia with degrees in mathematics and physics and embarked on a successful career in engineering, mostly in defense research and development, with a short stint in solar energy research in the late 1970s. He was also very supportive of Setha’s professional career, both when they were first together and when she returned to the workforce when their children were older.

The greatest challenge of Eric’s life was advocating and providing for his severely autistic older son. At a time when autism was routinely blamed on supposedly uncaring parents and services were nonexistent, Eric and Setha worked tirelessly to find help for their son and to make it easier for other parents of autistic and intellectually disabled children to find help and resources.

Eric became a board member and then president of the Association for Mentally Ill Children and, together with Setha, were committed and active members as AMIC and other advocacy organizations fought for for the passage of Massachusetts Chapter 766, the first law to guarantee the right to a free and appropriate public education for all children regardless of disability in 1972. This legislation became a model for the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Together with his family, Eric enjoyed skiing and hiking, and was also an accomplished mineral collector in his youth. After he retired from the MITRE Corp., he and Setha traveled extensively, including trekking to near Mount Everest in Nepal, traveling the Silk Road in China and Pakistan, and trips to Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands.

Interment will be at Westview Cemetery in Lexington. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Lurie Center for Autism.