Alan Mather

Alan Frederick Mather, 92, passed away Monday, August 10th, 2023, at Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth, while visiting his daughter’s house in Holderness. He was surrounded by family and at his favorite place in the world, Squam Lake, when cardiac arrest brought his long life to an end.

Alan was born January 1st, 1931, son of the late Frederick and Elizabeth (Stevens) Mather in Mount Vernon, New York. He grew up in Cuba and attended high school in Havana before attending Oberlin College and Yale Divinity School.

He became one of the chaplains at Yale and, while living in New Haven, met and married Cynthia Manley. They moved to Lordship, Connecticut on Long Island Sound in 1958 when he became the pastor at the Lordship Community Church and lived in the parsonage there until 1965 when he became the associate minister at the Wilton Congregational Church in Wilton, Connecticut. He left that church in 1969 and began commuting into New York City to work for American Airlines, developing a human resources program there. He then moved up the ‘corporate ladder’, working in HR for General Cable, Kennecott, and GTE. He ran executive education for GTE on the campus of a former monastery in the Connecticut woods before divorcing, retiring, and moving to Holderness, New Hampshire.

Alan had an idyllic childhood growing up in pre-Castro Cuba and, though he never returned there as an adult, he had a life-long love of Cuban Cuisine. He traveled up from Cuba to New Hampshire every summer with his parents, except during World War II, and spent many golden summers on Squam Lake. He brought his own family to spend summers on Squam during the 60’s and then again in the 80’s and 90’s. Alan served as interim minister at the Plymouth Congregational Church in Plymouth, NH and met Dorothy Smith there. They were married on Church Island at Squam and built a house on Shepard Hill in Holderness where they lived together until Dorothy’s death in June of 2022. He volunteered, worked as a docent, and took tour groups around the lake on the pontoon boats for the New Hampshire Science Center in Holderness for many years.

He moved from Holderness, NH to Heritage Heights in Concord, NH in October of 2022 and enjoyed becoming part of the community there. He attended South Congregational Church in Concord. He continued to make the drive up to Squam frequently to spend time with family and friends during the ten months that he lived in Concord.

Alan is survived by his daughter, Whiz Hutchinson and her husband, Jay, and his grandson, Jack, and by his son, Jeff Mather, and his granddaughters, Katherine Mather and Grace Mather.

Services will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Al’s honor to the New Hampshire Science Center or The Squam Lakes Association.

The Mayhew Funeral Homes and Crematorium in Meredith and Plymouth are honored to assist the Mather family with their arrangements. To sign The Book of Memories, go to: www.mayhewfuneralhomes.com