Eric W. Gough

1948 - 2021

Eric W. Gough
Eric Wells Gough, 72, stalwart husband, father, foodie, driver, and excellent friend, died at home in Walpole, New Hampshire on February 16, 2021.
While Eric lived in New Hampshire for his final 17 years, he started in a very different place. Born November 12, 1948 to Edward Gough and Joan Gough (née Wells) in Hyannis, Massachusetts, he was a lifelong music lover, excelling at the trumpet through graduation from Nyack High School (New York) in 1966. After high school, he attended Marietta College (Ohio), dropped out in 1969, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.
Teaching him Vietnamese, the Marines sent Eric to Vietnam as a crypto-linguist to intercept, crack and translate coded North Vietnamese radio transmissions. His four years with the Marines were life-changing. For him, "Once a Marine, Always a Marine" rang true.
Released from active duty in 1973, he returned to Marietta College and aced his Business/Economics degree program. He also met Kheuavanh (Ting) Vongsouthi, who became his wife and life partner. Eric and Ting went on to have two sons, Sam and Tim.
Supremely devoted to family, he provided a home with good schools for his children, commuting four hours a day from Wilton, Connecticut to New York over a 29-year career of building information systems at Wall Street firms, from Drexel Burnham Lambert to Goldman Sachs. He liked to remind us that he programmed computers from their beginnings on Wall Street, when a single computer filled an entire room.
An enthusiastic driver, in his souped-up Eagle Talon or the family mini-van, he was spontaneous. On the outset of one family road trip to Nova Scotia, he decided to turn left and they landed at Yellowstone National Park instead.
In 2003, he and Ting escaped the rat race and moved to Walpole, New Hampshire. He took to rural life well, working information technology at Bensonwood Homes and helping Ting cultivate their extensive vegetable gardens and lavender fields. Always appreciative of good food and drink wherever he went, he most of all preferred Ting's excellent Lao cooking at home.
A dedicated cyclist, he trained with Bensonwood's Beam Team for Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Norris Cotton Cancer Center's 100-mile Prouty event, even managing to cajole his father and siblings into joining him for several rides.
Good with his hands, he built a new deck on every house he owned. One of his final projects was building his beloved woodworking barn, carving the words "Carpe Diem" prominently into a crossbeam. Those were words he lived by. He was decisive, strong in his convictions, and quick to act. Though never one to take the spotlight, he was always there when you needed him.
An unabashed cat devotee, after he succumbed to his three-year fight with head and neck cancer, it was not surprising to find an inordinate number of cat selfies left on his iPhone.
Eric passed away after his mother, Joan; and step-mother, Judith Hurst. He will be missed by his wife, Ting; his children, Sam (Sarah Crane) and Tim (Ashley Wells); his grandchildren, Andrew and Everett; his father, Edward; his brothers, Ted, Cameron and Andrew; and his sisters, Tina and Kate. A celebration of life will be held at a later date. Memorial donations may be made in Eric's name to the Cheshire Health Foundation's Kingsbury Pavilion Cancer Center General Fund (https://www.cheshirehealthfoundation.org/kingsbury-pavilion-cancer-center-general-fund/).