Wilfred J. Tremblay Jr.

Wilfred J. Tremblay Jr. NEWPORT, NH -Wilfred Joseph Tremblay Jr. passed away at his home in Newport, NH on August 25, 2023, age 83, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was born on May 15, 1940, in Lebanon, NH, to Wilfred Joseph Tremblay Sr. and Jeanne Marie (Boisvert) Tremblay, whose families were both French-speaking recent immigrants to New Hampshire from Quebec Province in Canada. Wilfred grew up in a large, close-knit family and neighborhood in Lebanon, as the seventh child of nine in his family. His family was Catholic and deeply religious, and he attended Catholic schools until high school. When he began elementary school, he knew no English but learned and adapted quickly. He developed his lifelong love of hiking and outdoors activities at an early age by roaming the countryside of Lebanon on adventures with his siblings and neighborhood friends. In high school, he became an enthusiastic hunter, skier, and ski jumper, and excelled at football, advancing to the New Hampshire all-star team in the annual Shriner’s game in the year of his graduation in 1958. After high school, he joined the Air Force and became an aviation electronics and radar technician in the midst of the Cold War and was posted to various locations including Alabama and Greenland. His unit was put on high alert during the peak of the Cuban Missile Crisis. During his service, he practiced judo and weightlifting as sports. After his service, he returned to his hometown Lebanon, learned building trades, and started investing by buying, renovating, and reselling homes. Within a few years, he met Shirlene Clough, a pediatric registered nurse, whom he married in 1966. In subsequent years, he worked at Sanders Associates, an electronics defense contractor in Nashua, NH, moved with his young family to Newport, NH, in 1971, worked as a building contractor, with a partner started a small business that manufactured home-building kits (Solid Wall Buildings, Inc., on the Newport-Claremont Road), served for many years in Newport as a funeral director, and eventually became owner of the Newton-Bartlett Funeral Home until his retirement in 2009. In Newport, Wilfred was an active member of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus society, and a longtime fan at Newport High School football games. He passed along to his children and grandchildren an appreciation for nature and the outdoors, and deep values of learning, education, and self-improvement. In his final years, he was cared for at home by his daughter, Tammy, and his son, Peter. He was predeceased by his wife of 54 years, Shirlene, his parents, and his brothers Roger and Victor. He is survived by his siblings, Roland, Leon, Annette, Louis, John, and Louise; his six children, Timothy, James, Kelly, Mark, Tammy, and Peter; his children’s spouses, Jeanne, Vicki, and Andrea; and his 14 grandchildren (Linden, Joe and his wife Kat, Matt, Catie, Mike, Libby, Nate, Patrick, Sean, Ryan, Tula, Colin, Luke, and Ali). A memorial service will be arranged for a date in December or January yet to be determined. In lieu of flowers, please plant a tree in his memory.