Hanover, NH – Mallory H Slate, 88, of Hanover NH, died peacefully on July 7, 2026 with his family at his side. He and his wife, Ylva, made their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts for more than 40 years. In recent years, they relocated to The Greens in Hanover and Harvest Hill in Lebanon.
Mallory spent many years working alongside Ylva at Bob Slate Stationer, the family’s beloved Harvard Square store that was founded by his father in 1930. He operated the business with his brother Justin. A devoted member of the Cambridge community, Mallory was active for many years in the Rotary Club of Cambridge and was a longtime member of the Yankee Beemers BMW motorcycle club. He also maintained a close relationship with his high school alma mater, Browne & Nichols, where he remained an engaged alumnus.
Born in Boston and raised in Woburn, MA, Mallory’s family roots stretched back generations up and down the Connecticut River Valley to Bernardston, MA, where his ancestors farmed the land and where Mallory spent several boyhood summers. Following high school, Mallory enlisted in the U.S. Army, studied Russian at the Monterey Army Language School, and was subsequently stationed in Germany during the early years of the Cold War, serving in military intelligence to monitor Soviet tank movements and communications.
After completing his military service, he worked in film to create documentary series for public television, including a series on the artists of the Pop Art movement. During the mid-1960s, while in Europe traveling on a film assignment, Mallory met Ylva, who had traveled by train from Sweden to Paris for French study at the Sorbonne. Their chance encounter at the Parisian Hôtel Rochambeau – where Ylva staffed the front desk – began a lifelong partnership.
The couple first lived and worked in New York City, Ylva in the fashion industry and Mallory in documentary film. After relocating to San Francisco for several years – when Mallory wrote, filmed and directed Starbiker, a film about semi-professional motorcycle racing – they moved back east, where Mallory earned a degree in Russian Literature from Boston University and where they ultimately settled in Cambridge, MA.
Mallory had a lifelong love of learning, was an amateur etymologist and voracious reader of literature. He spoke conversational Russian and enjoyed practicing beginner’s Swedish. He treasured time spent “lakeside” at his “secret place in the woods” near Rumney, NH, listening to the bullfrogs, blazing trails through the back forty, and making bold and light-filled improvements to his family’s camp there. He will be remembered for his charm, wit, intellectual curiosity, deep commitment to family and community, and the warmth and generosity he shared with all who knew him.
Mallory is survived by his wife, Ylva; his daughter, Ursula, of Lyme, NH, her husband, Mark, and their daughters, Greta and Elsa; his son, Björn, of Lincoln, MA, and his wife, Olivia, and Björn’s two children, Henry and Lucy; his brother, Justin, of Cohasset, MA, and Justin’s two children, Jessica and Jonathan.
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