Oscar Henry Will II

Lee, NH – Oscar Henry Will, II, recently of Concord, formerly of Lee for many years, died peacefully July 22, 2024 at Hospice House in Concord. He was 91.
Oscar was born in Bismarck, North Dakota on November 1, 1932 and lived there through high school. He participated actively in the Boy Scouts and spent a lot of time roaming the prairie and bluffs surrounding Bismarck, both on foot and by horse (which, in those days, he could rent for an afternoon). Later, he worked in the large seed and nursery business known as the Oscar H. Will & Co., founded by his grandfather and namesake. But from a very young age, music was his passion. Oscar played clarinet, and, later, saxophone, in all of his school bands and orchestras. He also gathered a group of his peers to form a swing band that achieved local notoriety playing at high school dances and other teen hangouts, and, eventually, clubs and other venues around Bismarck. As a late teen, he spent time on the road in North Dakota and Montana with professional jazz musicians who learned of him after some local inquiries.
Oscar left Bismarck to matriculate at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he majored in music and thrived under the mentorship of several professors, in particular, the composer Walter Piston whom Oscar admired greatly throughout his adult life. Music occupied his academic and social life. He played in virtually every instrumental music group at Harvard and composed classical music. He took particular pride in hearing members of the Boston Symphony play a string quartet he composed as part of a composition class. He also had many funny stories about traveling as a member of Harvard's marching band.
During college he met Jane Gugin. Over the course of their 71 year marriage, they lived and raised five children in North Dakota, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Chicago, during which Oscar put music aside and built a career as an insurance executive to support his growing family. Returning to New England, however, remained their dream, and, in 1980, Oscar took an employment opportunity that allowed them to move to Lee New Hampshire. He and Jane built a house on the Lamprey River in which they lived until 2023. In those years, Oscar returned to the study of music and also to his nursery roots, creating and tending beautiful gardens and landscaping around the house, and managing the woods down to the river. He could also be coaxed to take to the river in a canoe with his flyrod.
In late 2023, Oscar moved to Granite Ledges in Concord because Jane needed memory care. There he tended to Jane until her death, and became a fixture in the memory care unit, visiting other residents and staff even after Jane had passed. He also found himself in the middle of an active social group, and made a very close friend who supported and entertained him right up to his passing. He often said that his time at Granite Ledges was among the best in his life.
Oscar had a great sense of humor, deep passion and enthusiasm for the things that caught his interest, and intellectual curiosity, but also humility. Right up to the very end, he remained cheerful and used his dwindling words to joke with and thank his care givers and visitors. He continued to try to become the best version of himself up to the day he died. A man of deep faith, he eagerly looked forward to joining Jane in the next life.
Oscar is survived by his daughter Maika Fowler of Washington, DC and her husband Tom, his daughter Mary Will Matthews of Mexia,Texas and her husband Mike, his son Oscar (Hank) Will, III, of Scranton, Kansas, and his son Dan Will of Loudon, New Hampshire and his wife Laurel. He was predeceased by his daughter Maura Klinge, of Naperville, Illinois.
A visitation will be held on Monday, July 29, 2024, from 10-10:45 a.m. at Kent & Pelczar Funeral Home, 77 Exeter Road (Route 108), Newmarket. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. at St. Mary Church, 182 Main Street, Newmarket, followed by burial at Calvary Cemetery, Newmarket.
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