Who is Donald C Roberts (1920-1962)

                     

Who is Donald C. Roberts? 

 

After we are gone, our remains lie in wait for Jesus return. Many are forgotten over time, but as I walk cemeteries, I think to myself – who is this person, and where did they come from, as I ponder their stories. 

Today I have chosen Donald C Roberts, buried in the Marshfield Hills Cemetery. All I know is he was born in 1920 and died in 1962. No sign or flags that he served in any wars. Nothing about him. What is his connection to Marshfield? 

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He was born Donald Chester Roberts. Donald was a management consultant and engineer for the Anderson Nichols Company of Boston, Massachusetts and was pronounced dead of natural causes at 5:05pm on January 26, 1962 as a result of acute and chronic ethyl alcoholism while on a business trip to Philadelphia.1 at the age of forty-one leaving his wife, Rachel A. (Dutton) Roberts and three sons, Jeffrey D Roberts, D. Christopher Roberts and Bradford D Roberts of Marshfield.  Don was born in Quincy, Massachusetts on September 11, 1920 to Deering S. Roberts, living in Largo, Florida at the time of his son’s passing and Edna Hammond. Donald attended the Quincy Schools, Thayer Academy, and the Lowell Technical Institute. 

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Donald married Rachel Asenath Dutton, (19) and daughter of Raymond W & Florence Dutton on February 1, 1941 in Nashua, Hillsborough, New Hampshire. She was born about 1921 in Wollaston, Massachusetts. 

He registered for the WWII draft on February 15, 1942 at Groton, Massachusetts from this record, we get a clearer picture of him as a tall man standing six feet and half and inch tall, weighing 140 pounds of light complexion, with brown hair and blue eyes. His death certificate shows he registered but did not serve. 

Prior to working for Anderson Nichols Company, Donald was head of research and development at the Merrimack Manufacturing Company in Lowell. He also worked for the Pepperell Manufacturing Company in Biddeford, Maine, the Verney Corporation in Manchester, New Hampshire and Bigelow, Kent and Willard of Boston, Massachusetts, as well as general manager of the Uncas Corporation in Providence, Rhode Island. 

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As a past-time, he enjoyed playing golf and was a member of the Marshfield Country Club. 

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He came to live in Marshfield, Massachusetts on Summer Street just seven years before his sudden death. He lived previously in Bedford, New Hampshire, Saco, Maine and Chelmsford, Massachusetts. We now have a clearer picture of who Donald C. Roberts is, and his connection to Marshfield. 

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If you are a relative or connected in anyway, please share how you knew him and share photoes if you are so inclined.