Brian Forrest Walsh ’65

Brian Forrest Walsh ’65 died unexpectedly on July 3 during a bicycle ride along the New Hampshire seacoast. He had stopped at his favorite bench and was gazing at the sea during his final moments. Bob Murphy ’65 remembers his undergraduate days with Brian, whose “outgoing personality made him popular on campus.” He was an All-American lacrosse goalie. Brian graduated Dartmouth and Tuck (1966) and then took an M.S. at Columbia. He was an entrepreneur and founding CEO of three companies. Brian and his wife, Linda, returned to Hanover in the mid-1970s to raise their five children. In 2004 they transitioned away from business life. Subsequently, Brian balanced his love of sailing and watercolor painting with community service. He served the town of Hanover on the board of selectmen for 15 years. Bob Murphy remarks that Brian was “the consummate consensus builder, very skilled at listening to all parties to a discussion with a great ability to blend different opinions into a solution acceptable to all. You would be hard-pressed to find many in town who didn’t admire what he accomplished.” The concrete manifestations of his involvement included relocating the Hanover Middle School, convincing constituents that Mary Hitchcock Hospital belonged on a larger footprint, and creating the rowing dock at Wilson’s Landing to accommodate the Upper Valley crew teams, to name a few. Brian was a man of great accomplishment in his business and civic life, and a man of deep spirit. He will be missed by many.