Avid sailor, founder of healthcare companies
Bob MacLaughlin (Courtesy photo)
Robert S. MacLaughlin, 79, died unexpectedly at his Harvard home on Monday, Sept. 9, 2013. He was born in Hartford, Conn. on May 31, 1934 and grew up in Niantic, where as a boy he took advantage of all possible water adventures like clamming, lobstering, and scalloping off little boats with his friends. He learned the ways of motor-boating on the Connecticut coast with his father, but even then had dreams of taking off on a sailboat. After graduating from the Loomis School and Yale University, his career in finance took off, first with the Norton Co., where he became CFO, and later at Dennison Mfg. Co. and National Medical Care. The last years of his career were spent as a founder of two privately funded, innovative healthcare companies, where he worked alongside his wife, Maria.
Bob and Maria’s partnership extended to a love for sailing, which they pursued in earnest after Bob’s retirement at age 60. They were passionate sailors, testing their seaworthy yacht Tashtego for off-shore sailing adventures, including three Marion-Bermuda regattas, a five-year Atlantic Circle voyage, and an exploration of the Mediterranean coast and islands. Trips often included family, friends, and even young grandchildren.
In 2003 Bob and Maria moved from Concord to Harvard to be near their grandchildren and have been touched by the friendliness and generosity of Harvard friends and neighbors. The friends Bob made at the men’s coffee at the Harvard Council on Aging and the “Orchard Hill Gang” were especially important to him.
He leaves his wife of 25 years, Maria v. S. Day; two daughters, Kyle Ryan of Holliston and Pamela Cassidy of Pawtucket, RI; a son, Stephen MacLaughlin of Worcester; two stepdaughters, Rebecca Day-Newsham of Harvard and Tessa Day of Jamaica Plain; and 11 grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested for the Harvard Council on Aging, 13 Ayer Rd., Harvard, MA, 01451.
A memorial service will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church on the Common, Friday, Sept. 27 at 11 a.m.
“If a man must be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, and perhaps a bit better than most. A small sailing craft is not only beautiful, it is seductive and full of strange promise and the hint of trouble.” —E. B. White
