Michael David Coughlin

1942 - 2024

Michael David Coughlin

Canterbury, NH - Michael David Coughlin

Mike died on October 16, 2024 at Brigham and Women's Hospital from the sudden worsening of existing health issues. His wife and four children were with him.

Mike was born September 17, 1942, in Baltimore, Maryland and immediately adopted by his parents, Emory A. Coughlin, Jr. and Floya Mills Coughlin. Mike attended grammar schools in Troy, and later, Purchase, NY. He graduated from Rye (NY) High School in 1960 where he was on the wrestling team, co- captain of the football team, and a member of the National Honor Society, and where he met the love of his life, Gretchen Mueller.

Emory and Floya both died when Mike was a freshman. After his mother died, his father married Joan Quinn, a work colleague and long-time friend of the family. Joan, along with Mike's Uncle Web (Thomas W. Coughlin), were important role models in his life.

After high school, Mike attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD where he served on the Brigade Honor Committee, the group that deliberates midshipman honor offenses and policies. Mike also played plebe and varsity lacrosse, earning 1st Team All-American honors in 1963 and 1964, and the Schmeisser Trophy as the nation's leading defenseman in 1963. In 2006, Mike was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Immediately following graduation, Mike and Gretchen were married on June 6, 1964 in Rye, NY. Mike often said marrying Gretchen was the best decision he ever made and was grateful she accepted, and he frequently joked about how relieved he was each year when she agreed to renew.

Mike was assigned to the USS Joseph K. Taussig DE 1030 home ported in Newport, RI, and later to another DE, the USS Coates DE 685. In November 1967, he was assigned to the River Patrol Forces based in Nha Be, Viet Nam, where he served a year. His last Navy assignment was as Foreign Liaison Officer for the Third Naval District in New York City.

Resigning from the Navy in 1969, Mike went to work for the Pillsbury Company in Minneapolis, MN, as a Product and Marketing Manager. After five years at Pillsbury, he became president of The Grist Mill Company in Lakeville, MN, a small food manufacturing company. Those eight years of living in Minnesota offered wonderful canoeing and camping for the young Coughlin family. Some of Mike's fondest memories are of those adventures in remote areas of the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota.

In 1977, Mike and Gretchen both resigned their jobs to embark on a family (now totaling six) adventure that they hoped would moderate the rush of time and careers and instill a sense of adventure in their children. The family toured Europe and Morocco for eleven months in an RV named Six-Pack.

Upon their return, the family moved to Concord, NH, where Mike joined The Concord Monitor newspaper as General Manager for five years. In 1984, he joined Concord Litho Company, and a year later became its president. While at Concord Litho, he was involved in two national printing industry organizations as a director of The Graphic Arts Technical Foundation and as president of the Web Offset Association of the Printing Industries of America.

After 15 years at Concord Litho, Mike started his own consulting practice, Coughlin Associates. Part of the practice involved working with distressed companies, and in that context he assumed roles of Chairman of the Board/Director of PVA-EPVA, Inc. and President/Director of McLeod Belting Company. The balance of the practice involved working with company owners in an advisory capacity. Mike also served on the boards of Lincoln National Variable Insurance Trust (a Lincoln Financial Group mutual fund company), Merrimack County Savings Bank, New Hampshire Mutual BanCorp, and Mill River Wealth Management.

Mike strongly believed in the obligation to devote time and energy to causes outside of work. One of the most satisfying of these endeavors was as president of Partners Aiding Children Today (PACT). Toward the end of America's war in Viet Nam, PACT brought young Vietnamese children to Minneapolis for surgery to repair heart defects, surgery unavailable in Viet Nam and without which the children would die. Mike was also a Chairman/Trustee of Concord Hospital and Capital Region Healthcare Corp, a director of the Chamber of Commerce and the Concord YMCA and a member of the Rotary Club, the New Hampshire Supreme Court Long-Range Planning Task Force and the Brigham and Women's Hospital Ethics Committee.

At age 50, Mike found his biological mother, Irma Mae Symons of Snow Hill, MD, as well as a brother, two sisters and five nieces and nephews. Mike very much enjoyed and loved this "new' family of his. Irma died in 2008 at age 88.

Mike defined himself as a father, husband, veteran, sailor and general manager. He believed adventure, even modest adventure, should be a part of life. In that spirit, from 2007 to 2009, he completed a circumnavigation of New England and the Canadian Maritimes via the Hudson River, Erie Canal, and St. Lawrence River and around Nova Scotia on Lady Kira, a 35' sailing ketch. What made this achievement even more rewarding for him was being joined in various segments of the voyage by family and friends, including members of the Muddy Bottom Yacht Club.

In 2010, Mike received a heart transplant at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He was forever grateful to the donor and his family for that heart and to the doctors and nurses at The Brigham. They all gave Mike many more quality years of life.

Mike will be remembered for his genuine respect and caring for all people, his kindness, patience and fairness, his integrity, his strong sense of duty, and his sense of humor. In his dealings with others, he did his best to live by the phrase he often used, "Always take the high road". We will also deeply miss his wisdom and his knowledge across a range of subjects.

Mike was enormously proud of his wife, his children, their spouses, and his grandchildren and loved them all deeply. His fondest memories were family memories.

Mike is survived by his wife of 60 years, Gretchen, and his children and their spouses: Michael D. Coughlin, Jr. (Patti), Heather C. Beckett, Thai E. Coughlin (Winnie Low), and Amy C. Jones (Erik). He is survived as well, by his grandchildren: Sam, Molly, Sophie, Noah, Yee, Jiang, Owen and Brody, and further by his brother and sisters and their spouses: John Symons (Sherry), Jeanne Shockley (Virgil), and Sandra Layton, and his thirteen nephews and nieces, Rodney, Adam, Hallie, Anne, Emma, Carl, Robert, Charles, Kate, Zach, Josh, Mathew, and Brenna, and his many cousins and inlaws.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 pm on Sunday, November 24 at The Barn at Bull Meadow, Concord, NH. Donations in memory of Mike may be made to the United States Naval Academy Foundation or to Brigham and Women's Hospital.