Gilmanton Iron Works, NH

Francis N. (Norm) Fountain, of Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H., died Saturday February 27 at Golden View Health Care in Meredith, N.H. He was 96. He had lived at home and enjoyed good health until a series of falls and small strokes slowed him over his last four months.

He was born in Palmer, Mass. on June 6, 1924 to Charles J. and Helen A. (Sullivan) Fountain. His father owned a garage and livery business and was elected to four terms as a Palmer selectman. His mother worked in her family's bakery, and one of Norm's warmest childhood memories was the smell of fresh-baked bread wafting from his mother's kitchen.

Following graduation from Palmer High School in 1941, he took a job as a meter reader with the local electric utility. He would remain with the company—which would eventually become Massachusetts Electric—for more than 45 years. During World War II, he served with the Army's 97 ^th Infantry Division, seeing fighting in Germany in the final weeks of the European war, and then serving as part of the army of occupation in Japan in 1945-46. He was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge and the European and Pacific Theater ribbons.

Following the war, he married, built, by his own hand, a home in Palmer and a cottage in New Hampshire, took some evening courses at Western New England College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and worked his way through the ranks of the Massachusetts Electric Company, eventually retiring as district superintendent in Southbridge and Hopedale.

He moved permanently to Gilmanton Iron Works following his retirement in 1987. There he indulged in a lifelong passion for woodworking, spending hours a day in his well-equipped workshop in the basement of his lakefront home. He crafted items as delicate as jewelry boxes and as substantial as beds, armoires, hutches, end tables and kitchen cabinets. But grandfather clocks were his specialty. He built more than a dozen, from oak, cherry and walnut; and today they stand as heirlooms-in-waiting in the homes of his children, extended family, and friends from New England to the Carolinas.

His wife Louise (Sawicki) died in 2016; they had been married 66 years. He is survived by his five children: Charles and his wife Catherine of Cambridge, Mass; James and his wife Deb of Oakdale, Conn.; Gregory of Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H.; Robert and his wife Mariane of Woodbridge, Conn.; and Maureen and her husband Michael Quinn of Arlington, Mass. He Is survived also by seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, his funeral mass at St. Katherine Drexel Church in Alton, N.H. will be private. Burial at St. Thomas Cemetery in Palmer will follow at a later date. Cremation care by Peaslee Funeral Home.