Newport
Every pew was filled, with many more in the balcony, as hundreds, both young and old, came to remember and celebrate McCrillis’ life.
“So many people have come up to me to tell me what a difference my dad made in their life,” his daughter, Laura McCrillis Kessler, said at a reception after the service. “He had the ability to connect with everybody. He was interested in everybody for who they were and he wanted to see them do their best.”
The Rev. Alice Roberts of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Newport spoke for many at the start of the Aug. 6 service.
“We remember him as a community leader, as a faithful and genuine friend, as a loving husband, father and grandfather; as a man who truly and meaningfully touched the lives of many as is evidenced by the presence of all of you here today,” Roberts said.
McCrillis, a Newport native who died on June 21 at age 86, leaves a rich legacy of community support with involvement in numerous charitable and service organizations that worked for the betterment of Newport and surrounding towns, including the Newport Rotary and Newport Ski Club.
He was president and trustee of the old Newport Hospital, a trustee of Richards Free Library, the Newport Charitable Fund and Kimball Union Academy, where he graduated in 1948. The school honored him in 1998 with the Kimball Union medal for his work on behalf of the school.
McCrillis and his wife were founding members of the Grace Anglican Church in Newport, where the Rev. Ross Kimball served as its priest.
“Webster should put John’s picture next to the word ‘pillar’ in the dictionary,” Kimball said at the memorial service.
All three McCrillis children spoke of the example their father set for them growing up. Bill McCrillis talked about a letter he wrote to his dad in April when he had been hospitalized a couple of months before he died.
“Dad, I just want to let you know, how proud I am to have you as my father,” Bill began. “Your whole life you had served God and your country, loved and supported your family and contributed selflessly to the community you have lived in. You made a huge difference in everything you have been involved in, always helped to make things better.”
He singled out his father’s efforts to help convert the former Newport hospital into an assisted-living facility, Summercrest.
“With your vision and determination … people have the option to remain in Newport, their hometown, close to friends and family,” he said.
It was that community commitment that earned McCrillis Newport’s Citizen of the Year award in 1991. But stories of a more personal nature are what endeared McCrillis to so many.
“When I first became town manager and I lived alone for a while before my family joined me, John and Kay invited me to their house for dinner,” recalled former Town Manager Dan O’Neill, who came to Newport from Michigan. “I knew him as the generous person the family spoke about during the service. He was always friendly and interested in talking to you. He had his opinions but was never confrontational.”
At the service, son David read a letter his mother received after McCrillis died, in which the letter-writer said, “my life has been made so much better because you and John were kind to me when I was a troubled teenager. I could never return what was given to me. The best I can do is be kind to others in return.”
Dan Van Dorn, a Dartmouth classmate of McCrillis’, practiced law for 40 years in New Jersey before retiring to the Upper Valley 10 years ago.
“When we came up here, John and Kay were so welcoming to us,” said Van Dorn, with his wife, Julie, at the reception. “He was always very sincere, outgoing and selfless.”
Laura Kessler said her “father’s greatest gift was that he was a good listener and he had compassion for all.”
John McCrillis was born in Newport on May 30, 1930, a descendant of John Wimarth, one of Newport’s earliest settlers from the late 1700s.
After KUA, he went on to Dartmouth — where he played on the tennis team — and graduated in 1952. He served two years in the Army and then moved to Boston, working at Old Colony Trust Co. He met his future wife, Katharine Cooper Wood, at a dinner party, where John did a credible job cooking the main course — chicken — and they discovered a mutual love of tennis and skiing, Laura said.
They were married in 1959 and four years later returned to Newport where McCrillis took over the family insurance business, McCrillis and Eldredge, which he owned until his retirement in 1992.
Once back in his hometown, McCrillis threw himself into a level of civic involvement that stretched for decades and covered just about every conceivable philanthropic endeavor.
“He was an extraordinary person who always had a positive impact on the place and people he touched,” his son Dave said at the service. “He always tried to do the right thing. Never one to seek the limelight or publicity of any kind, just a quiet, consistent and compassionate approach to life were the trademarks of his 86 years.”
Peter Mehegan knew McCrillis from summers on Lake Sunapee in the Burkehaven area.
“They were always good to us,” Mehegan said. “My wife is from Sweden so it was culture shock when she came here. They made her feel very comfortable. John was always gentle and friendly; a spokesperson for everything that is good.”
While serving Newport was important, family always came first for McCrillis, his children said.
“My dad would always say, go enjoy your wonderful family,” remembered Bill.
Daughter Laura said family outings included hiking locally or in the White Mountains, downhill and cross country skiing and football games at KUA and Dartmouth.
Living in the heart of Red Sox country made McCrillis somewhat of an anomaly when it came to cheering his favorite baseball team, the Detroit Tigers. That devotion was cemented early on in life after a train trip to Michigan in 1939, where his mother’s family was from. Just eight years old, McCrillis was in the stands of old Tiger Stadium on May 2 that year when Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig, experiencing symptoms of what later became known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, took himself out of the lineup, ending a then-record consecutive game playing streak of 2,130 games.
His love of the Tigers was recognized by the team about a week after he died. Bill, an airline pilot, had a layover in Detroit on his way back from Denver and was able to get to a game against the Florida Marlins where his wife joined him. Bill said he put in a request with the team to mention his father on the stadium’s Jumbotron but was told he needed to ask a couple of days in advance. But then in the fourth inning, suddenly it appeared. “New Hampshire’s Best Tigers fan, John McCrillis. Rest in Peace, 1930-2016.”
An inning later, down 3-0, the Tigers scored seven runs with three home runs and went on to win, 7-5.
“It was moving and pretty special,” Bill said.
McCrillis not only loved baseball but was passionate about many sports, whether playing or watching, and religiously attended the games of his children and grandchildren. He and his wife once flew to Arizona to watch their granddaughter, Katharine, play in a field hockey tournament.
Last fall, when Dartmouth’s football team was crowned co-Ivy League champs, McCrillis came down on the field to congratulate Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens.
An accomplished tennis player — efficient but not overpowering — McCrillis was highly competitive but always in a friendly way. He was a founding partner of the Newport Tennis Club and as an avid skier, a founding member of the Newport Nordic Club that was instrumental in bringing the ski jump used in the 1960 Winter Olympics from Lake Placid to Newport. Last winter he lit the torch at Newport’s 100th winter carnival, after several skiers reenacted a trip McCrillis’ father had taken on skis from Dartmouth to Newport in 1916.
Said Bill, “If I can live my life half as good as his life, I will have been successful.”