Robert Farquharson McGann

1934 - 2025

Robert Farquharson McGann
05/07/2025
Robert Farquharson McGann died on May 7, 2025. He was 90 years old at the time of his death and born on July 2, 1934, in Newcastle, England, to Rob and Rita McGann. The family, including his younger sister, Margaret, moved around the country with his father, a civil servant, before they finally settled in southwest London in 1944. Theirs was a childhood shaped by WWII, from huddling in the family's bomb shelter during the Blitz, finding hot shrapnel on the way to school or being evacuated hundreds of miles away.
Academically gifted, Dad received a scholarship to the prestigious King's College School in Wimbledon, excelling both in the classroom and on the sports field. His fierce work ethic and commitment to learning saw him win both academic and sporting prizes and then a scholarship to St Mary's Medical School in London, graduating in 1958. There, too, he thrived on the challenges of medicine and especially rugby, forming lifelong friendships through both.
In 1960, Dad met the young Mary Beale, a nurse. Within three weeks, they were engaged and, within six months, married. He then began his two-year national service, joining the Royal Navy as a surgeon lieutenant. But he still found time for rugby – his commanders once sending a jeep to ferry him away on the eve of a two-day military exercise so he could get some sleep ahead of an important match. Soon, though, the couple were stationed in Singapore, where they lived, as they reminded us, very happily for two carefree, child-free years.
When they returned to the UK, ahead of the birth of their first son, Robert, in 1963, Dad went into general practice outside London. A second son, Charles, arrived in 1965. But, frustrated with the lack of career progression available to ambitious family doctors at the time, Dad, with his young family, immigrated to the US in 1966. After a short stint in Maine, the family found their way to Meriden, Connecticut. There, a daughter, Harriet, was born in 1969.
In the early 1970s, Dad founded Family Practice Associates. It soon became a successful and thriving practice, serving thousands of families around Meriden. Dad's desire to keep learning and challenging himself saw him take on other roles, including chief of staff at Meriden-Wallingford Hospital and teaching medical residents about family practice at UConn Medical School. In 1989, he left his practice to become VP of Medical Affairs at Meriden-Wallingford Hospital (now Mid-State Medical). While in this new role, he earned a master's in hospital administration and helped coordinate a merger with Hartford Hospital.
After he retired in 1999, Mary and Rob moved to Sunset Beach, North Carolina, to enjoy the sunshine, indulge his hungry intellect with plentiful histories and biographies, play golf and tennis, and host various friends and family. Throughout, as indeed across much of his life, Dad's insatiable curiosity, sharp sense of humour and social nature endeared him to many. His English accent probably helped, too.
Mary died in June 2021, just a few weeks shy of their 61st wedding anniversary. Dad moved into independent living in nearby South Carolina and had only recently moved to New Hampshire to be closer to his eldest son, Rob.
He leaves behind Robert and his wife Anne of South Berwick, Maine; Charles and his wife Barbry of Danville, California; Harriet and her partner David Jones of Seaview, Isle of Wight, UK; and his four grandchildren, Nathaniel McGann, Abigail Parsons, Declan McGann and Kaela McGann.
Services for Rob will be private.