Lebanon, N.H. —
He was born on Aug. 25, 1930, in Woodsville, N.H. to Muriel (Sargent) and Ernest North. Although he grew up in Ridgewood, N.J., John always had strong connection to New Hampshire. In his youth, he spent most summers in Woodsville or on the shores of Lake Armington. He attended Camp Belknap in Wolfeboro for five summers and hiked the Presidential range as a teenager.
Before heading off to college, John had memorable summers; working in the merchant marine and traveling through the Panama Canal, white water canoeing in the wilderness of northern Ontario as well as being a gandy dancer on a railroad construction project in Alaska.
John graduated from Dartmouth College in the class of 1952, he then earned his MBA at the Amos Tuck School of Business in 1953. Following Tuck School, he joined the Navy to see the world. He was commissioned in Hanover and spent the next two years on the carrier USS Saipan.
A 30-year career with AT&T and the Bell Telephone System began in Michigan in 1955, residing in Birmingham, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Grosse Pointe. After the first year, it was clear to him he had been a bachelor too long and he could greatly improve his life if he shared it with Judy Hyde, whom he met on a blind date at Dartmouth in 1953. She graduated in the Wellesley class of 1955 and they were married in Judy’s home town, Lancaster, Ohio in August of 1956. In due course four children followed. In 1973 the family moved east where John worked first at AT&T in New York City and later for 10 years in Boston as chief operating officer of New England Telephone. The breakup of the Bell System resulted in a job offer requiring a move back to New York. An offer he could, and did refuse, retiring at age 55.
Fulfilling a dream, John and Judy had acquired a 200-acre hill farm in Lyme, N.H. the year before. On his list of best decisions, he said marrying Judy was first and second was the decision to retire early. Their lives changed a great deal in the move from Weston, Mass. to a farm in a small, rural New England town. John went from running the telephone company to developing personal interests and hobbies, raising sheep, chickens, ducks and a variety of livestock. He went from commuting on the Mass Pike to driving a John Deere tractor. He kept an orchard, started a Christmas tree farm and became a bee keeper. He spent some of his happiest times toiling in his woodworking shop and driving his tractor. He traded his board positions in Boston for a position on the Lyme Planning Committee and a post in the Lyme Auxiliary Fire Department. After climbing to the top of a campus flagpole on a prank his freshman year at Dartmouth, he thought that climbing roof-tops in the middle of the night as a Lyme firefighter was a natural follow-on.
At age 75 when John felt he was getting too old to climb a ladder to clear ice off the roof in the winter, John and Judy downsized from their beloved farm to a house in Etna, N.H. At age 80 it was time to downsize further and they moved to an apartment at The Woodlands retirement community in Lebanon, N.H.
Volunteer service and board roles were an important part of his life; not for the sake of prestige, but as a way of contributing to the fabric of his community. He chaired the Boston Chamber of Commerce, served on the board of Shawmut Bank and the Alice Peck Day Hospital among many others. An active member of the Dartmouth community, he held at least nine different positions including class president.
He is survived by his wife, Judy; his sister, Nancy North Maynard; his four children, Jeffrey North, David North, Deborah Cartisser, Susan Ein; and five grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at the Lyme Congregational Church, 1 Dorchester Rd., on the green in Lyme, on Jan. 21, 2017, at 2 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Lyme Fire Fighter’s Association, Town of Lyme, PO Box 126, Lyme, NH 03768.