Stephen F. McLaughlin

Stephen F. McLaughlin, 66, passed away at home, surrounded by family, on August 18 after a courageous battle with cancer. Stephen was born in Boston in the middle of the Baby Boom generation, and in the middle of a more immediate baby boom – as the fifth in a family of ten children – to Leo J. and Katherine (Pucci) McLaughlin. As a young child, the family moved from Boston to Bedford, NH, where he attended grammar school. He graduated from Bishop Bradley High School and earned an electrical engineering degree from the University of New Hampshire. He enjoyed pointing out that he was among the last generation of engineers educated using a slide rule, which today seems like an outdated tool, but was used to send a man to the moon. Stephen started his career at LeCroy, a small instrumentation firm in West Nyack, New York, that manufactures oscilloscopes and other test equipment for physics research. He returned to New Hampshire in 1979 to open a regional sales office for the company, working with physics researchers throughout the Northeast, including several Nobel Prize-winning scientists. He always felt fortunate to be part of a small group of engineers and scientists that grew the company into a major international supplier of leading-edge instruments. Later in his career, Stephen joined FLIR, a defense contractor that manufactures long-range thermal-imaging cameras for surveillance applications. In this position, he travelled around the country and around the world to support a wide variety of organizations with security and surveillance solutions. As an applications engineer, he worked with U.S. and foreign militaries and government agencies to design and deliver state-of-the-art thermal-imaging solutions. He was once again fortunate to join a relatively small company during a period of rapid growth, which led to many opportunities for enrichment. In his leisure time, Stephen spent countless hours working with his wife to restore the turn-of-the-century Victorian home they have lived in for more than 30 years. He is remembered as a loving, supportive and involved father and a deeply committed husband to his high school sweetheart, who he met at 17 while working at Lord's Department Store on Hanover Street in Manchester. He was especially funny, with a razor-sharp wit, descending from a line of very funny people: After his father died, Stephen and his siblings found a stack of notecards in his desk with only the punchlines for countless jokes. When Stephen's children were young, there was no better thing to hear when they got in trouble than "wait until your father comes home." If they could just get him to crack a smile, the chances were pretty good that things would turn out alright. Stephen was predeceased by his parents and a sister, Rosemary McLaughlin. Stephen is survived by his wife of 45 years, Joanne (Doucet) McLaughlin, and three children: Stephanie McLaughlin and her husband Patrick Parkinson of Manchester; Benjamin McLaughlin and his wife Amy of Exeter; and Timothy McLaughlin and his wife Gretchen Morgan of Portsmouth, plus four grandchildren: Wyatt, Morgan, Cole and Alice McLaughlin. He is also survived by his siblings: Marcia Zahr; Hannah McCarthy and husband Phil Rutledge; Leo McLaughlin and wife Marty; Michael McLaughlin and wife Mary; Kathleen Peterson and husband David; Mark McLaughlin; Patricia McLaughlin; Matthew McLaughlin and wife Debra; plus 24 nephews and nieces, and a large extended family. A celebration of life service took place on Monday, August 22, 2016 at Lambert Funeral Home & Crematory, 1799 Elm St., Manchester, NH. To send a message of condolence visit www.lambertfuneralhome.com