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Robert McGrath Obituary


McGrath, Robert
Gregory
Fairlee, VT: Robert Gregory (Greg) McGrath, 78, died at his home on August 21. He was born to Elizabeth and George McGrath in 1931 in New York City. He graduated in 1948 from Baldwin High School in Freeport, Long Island. Greg was an athlete at Amherst College, lettering in football, wrestling, and track, and graduated in 1952. After spending a year in a chemical engineering graduate program at MIT, Greg married Elizabeth (Betsey) Blanton of Danville, Indiana. He attended the Navy's Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island; served in Washington, D.C., and Coronado, California; then moved to Irondequoit, New York, to begin a career of nearly 30 years with Eastman Kodak Company. He was a parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle in Irondequoit. Greg retired in 1986. In 2000, he and Betsey moved to Lake Morey in Fairlee, VT.
Greg was deeply involved in his volunteer work and often guided others - calmly - through controversial issues. He was a member and president of the school board in West Irondequoit for ten years and a helped build the West Irondequoit Foundation. He fought for and helped maintain an Urban - Suburban Interdistrict Transfer Program, enhancing a high quality school system with strong community support. In Fairlee, he was president of the Lake Morey Protective Association and a trustee of the Lake Morey Foundation.
Greg loved the water. He sailed with his brother along the barrier islands of Long Island and with his family on Lake Ontario. He was a member of the Rochester Yacht Club. On Lake Morey, he carefully maintained a wooden Old Town canoe and rowed a Vermont guide boat when his knees would no longer allow him to run.
Greg is survived by Betsey, his wife of 55 years; their three children and their families: Peggy McGrath Sherman and her husband John of Slingerlands, New York, and their sons, Nate and Will; Cathy McGrath of Fairlee, Vermont and her former husband Bill Kissick, and their daughters, Carrie and Eliza; and Rob McGrath and his wife Betsy of Sharon, Massachusetts, and their children, Sarah and Tommy; as well as his brother John McGrath of Honolulu, Hawaii and his sister Anne Kilbourn Caretto of Valencia, Pennsylvania.
There will be a memorial mass at St. Denis Church in Hanover, NH at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 29. At 4:00 p.m. that afternoon, there will be a celebration of Greg's life at Lanakila Camp (the Hulbert Outdoor Center) on Lake Morey in Fairlee, VT. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that others honor Greg's life with gifts to the Lake Morey Foundation (P.O. Box 234, Fairlee, VT 05045), to Amherst College (P.O. Box 5000, Amherst, MA 01002), or to the Fairlee Public Library (221 Rt. 5, Fairlee, VT 05045).

Published by Rochester Democrat And Chronicle on Aug. 25, 2009.
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