Obituary

Gordon L. Newell

Mon, 02/12/2018 - 10:15am

Gordon Look Newell of Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, formerly of Westborough, Massachusetts, died Jan. 26, 2018, at the age of 98.

“Gus,” as his friends called him, was born in Uxbridge, Masschusetts Aug. 28, 1919, the son of E. Raymond Newell and Nellie Look Newell. He graduated from Hebron Academy as valedictorian for the class of 1938, and from Dartmouth College in 1942, where he was a member of the Green Key Honor Society, Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, and manager of the Dartmouth Ivy League Championship basketball team.

After graduation, Gus entered the United States Navy on June 4, 1942, with the Dartmouth Naval Air Unit and received his commission and Navy wings in January 1943, in Jacksonville, Florida.

After his marriage on April 4, 1943, to Barbara Robertson in Milton, Massachusetts, they lived in Pensacola, Florida for two years, where he was stationed at N.A.S. Barin Field as a flight instructor, training fighter pilots in air acrobatics, air gunnery, and night flying.

Gus served in the U. S. Naval Reserve after the war and was re-activated for The Korean Conflict. He served in Navy Fighter Squadron 916 and was awarded the Navy E for Excellence in High Altitude Gunnery. Gus was honorably discharged from active duty in January 1953, with the rank of lt. commander.

Gus’s entire business career was spent with The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company of Worcester. He joined the company shortly after World War II and retired as a vice president in 1984.

Gus and his wife, Barbara, lived in Westborough for 48 years. They loved Westborough and were both very active in the community. He was a deacon, trustee and chairman of The Congregational Church Committee, a Westborough School Committee member for six years, and for three years he served as chairman. He also served on the building committee of the Annie E. Fales Elementary School, was active in establishing the Little League baseball program, and was a member of the Westborough Country Club.

Gus and Barbara moved to Heatherwood in Yarmouth Port in September of 2003, where they have resided ever since. They both enjoyed extensive world travel; and after retirement, they enjoyed spending winters in Marco Island, Florida, and summers at their home at Ocean Point (East Boothbay, Maine), where Gus enjoyed golf, boating, fishing on the Maine coast, and spending time with his family members. His family was a great source of pride for him.

He is survived by his wife of 74 years, Barbara Robertson Newell of Yarmouth Port; his children, Peter and wife, Barbara of Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Nancy Robbins and husband, Lee of New York, New York; and Betsy Newell and her husband, Richard Morse, of Barnstable, Massachusetts. Gus is also survived by six grandchildren: Kimberly Jetnil, Matthew Robbins, Carrie Newell, Stephanie Kaler, Robin Morse and Richard Morse III. He is also survived by seven great-grandchildren.

Gus was pre-deceased by his brother, Roger Newell, and his sister, Dorothy Wagner.

Services will be held this summer at Ocean Point, followed by a celebration of a life well-lived which will be held at The Ocean Point Inn.