Roger Bliss Wilson Sr.

Roger Bliss Wilson, Sr. 1921 - 2009 GRAFTON, VT Roger Bliss Wilson, Sr., 87, died on July 25, at the RiverMead Retirement Community in Peterborough, N.H. He was born in 1921, in Cambridge, Mass., to Grafton and Dorothy Bliss Usher Wilson. Raised in Brookline, Mass., he graduated in 1939 from The Putney School in Vermont, and in 1943 from Harvard with a degree in geology. Upon graduation from Harvard, he enlisted in the Army, Tenth Mountain Division, as a ski trooper and was stationed at Camp Hale in Colorado until he transferred to the Army Air Force. In the Air Force he was a B-17 radio operator and gunner, stationed in England and flying missions over Germany until the end of the war. He continued his service after the war as a crew member on transport missions across Europe. During that time, he survived two plane crashes, one into a mountainside in Germany and one into the Mediterranean. After his military service, he briefly worked in gold mines in northern Canada before beginning a long and successful career as an employee benefits consultant in the Boston area, becoming a senior executive with Connell Price & Company which was acquired by Peat Marwick & Mitchell in 1974. He retired from the Boston office of Peat Marwick & Mitchell in 1987. Roger married his first wife, Mary Faith Polly Williams Coleman, in 1951. They raised their family of six children in Lexington, Mass., and Marlboro, Vt., and subsequently divorced. In 1980 he married Rosalys Rosie Buckles Thorndike of Dedham, Mass. They made their home in Dedham until his retirement in 1987, when they moved to Roger's childhood summer home in Grafton, Vt., and became active members of that community. Roger was a quintessential mountain man. He loved to ski, especially on Mt. Washington, and to hunt and fish, hike, camp, scythe, and chop wood. While in college, he helped construct the Harvard Cabin in Pinkham Notch, N.H., owned by the Harvard Outing Club and now operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club. In 1946, he and his college ski-team buddies founded The Drifters, a ski club which still thrives today in Jackson, N.H. He continued to ski race most of his long life. He and his wife Rosie traveled widely, including several cross-country camping trips and many skiing expeditions. He was inducted into the Vermont Ski Hall of Fame in 2003. In addition to his wife, Roger leaves two brothers, Leonard of Montpelier, Vt., and Douglas of Brattleboro, Vt.; his brother, Lee of Grafton, Vt, died in 2000. He leaves six children and four step-children, T. Hunter Wilson, Nora Wilson and Patricia Wilson of Marlboro, Vt.; Nancy H. Wilson of Amherst, Mass.; Roger B. Wilson, Jr. of Winchester, Mass.; A. Dawes Wilson of Vail, Colo.; William Thorndike of Morrison, Ill.; Benjamin Thorndike of Dover, Mass.; Edward Thorndike of Benson, Vt., and Katherine Brindisi of Peterborough, N.H. He also leaves 18 grandchildren and a host of extended family. MEMORIAL NOTICE: Friends and relatives are invited to a celebration of his life at the RiverMead Retirement Community in Peterborough, NH, on Aug. 9 at 4 p.m. There will also be a memorial service in The White Church in Grafton, VT, on Aug. 16 at 3 p.m. Memorial gifts in his name may be made to the Grafton Improvement Association, PO Box 127, Grafton, Vermont, 05146.