Harry W. Tong

Harry W Tong died peacefully at home early on November 3, 2025, at the age of 83 after an extended period of declining health stemming from his successful battle with sinus cancer. He was born in Putnam CT, January 10, 1942, to Harry A Tong and Agnes (Conway) Tong, and grew up in Nashua, NH. He graduated from Nashua HS in 1959 and continued onto Lowell Teachers College (now known as UMass Lowell) where he received a degree in Music Education in 1963. He studied a summer at Harvard and sang in the Tanglewood Chorus.

He began his music teaching career at Fairgrounds Junior HS in Nashua, followed by schools in Hollis and Amherst and at Spring St. Jr High in Nashua. While a young teacher, he also served in the 39th Army Band. More recently, he taught at Andover and Mont Vernon. He composed and directed music for musical theater, bands and choirs in Nashua, Hollis, Amherst, Chelmsford and Milford.

After starting Hampshire Music Company in his bedroom while he was in college (largely to obtain a discount on sheet music), he opened a proper brick and mortar retail store on Water Street in downtown Nashua, later moving it later to its Amherst St. location. Additional locations were opened in Keene and Plaistow. Hampshire Music Company was a major presence in northern and central New England for student, amateur, and professional musicians for years.

Later he began a new career and started a new business (Hampshire Stamps or 1840-1950 Mostly Stamps), becoming a major dealer of rare and collectable stamps, attending stamp shows in NH, the northeast and as far away as Florida, St. Louis, and Chicago.

He served for a time on the Milford Zoning Board of Adjustment and also organized the summer band concerts on the oval. He had a short sailing career as he enjoyed summers sailing his cruising sailboat along the NE coast. Harry also loved watching basketball (especially the Celtics), and more recently the WNBA (especially Caitlin Clarke). He loved music and art, and he created many interesting and creative drawings in a style reminiscent of MC Escher, designing many of the advertising postcards and signs for his stamp business.

He was predeceased by his parents and his first wife, Diane (Spaulding) Tong. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Nancy (Shaw) Tong, of Milford NH, his daughter Pamela Sturdevant of Nashua NH, his son Jeffrey Tong of Milford NH and his son Matthew Tong of Malden MA. He has three siblings, Sandra Theis (Jim) and Alan Tong (Deborah) of Loris SC, and David Tong (Joanne) of Keene NH. He has two granddaughters, Shanley Gaikwad and Kendra Sturdevant, and one great-granddaughter, Ekta Gaikwad.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Milford’s SHARE Outreach,1 Columbus Avenue, Milford, NH 03055

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 am on Saturday, November 15, 2025, at the Milford United Methodist Church at 327 North River Road, Milford, NH.