Guy Jackson

Guy Letchford Jackson of Dublin, NH passed away on February 2, 2022, at age 72. His last four days, comfortably at home, were surrounded by extended family and close friends celebrating his life. He said that he thought he might be the luckiest guy in the world.

Guy was born to Sallie Letchford Jackson and Gardner Jackson Jr. on November 10, 1949, in Boston, MA.  He spent his younger years growing up in Lincoln, MA, and splitting his summer months between Osterville and Cotuit, MA.  The oldest of four brothers, Guy set a tone of kindness and generosity that defined the closeness and love that his extended family has continued to share for generations. The brothers spent endless days together sailing and racing skiffs in Cotuit, a sport at which they all excelled, and devising pick-up games of soccer, pond hockey, and other rambunctious games siblings will play.

Guy left Lincoln in 1962 to attend the Dublin School in Dublin, NH, four years that were among his favorites. He treasured soccer, sailing, ‘work gang’, and skiing for the school, as well as his life-long relationships with friends, faculty, and the administration. He chose to hike Mt. Monadnock every Sunday morning in lieu of attending church. Graduating from high school did not stop him from returning to Dublin and the mountain. For much of the rest of his life he would bring family and friends back to the Pumpelly Trail (yes, the longest trail) to climb the mountain and moved back to Dublin in 2010, to a home with a lovely view of the top.

In 1968, Guy joined the Navy as a Corpsman. He first worked at Chelsea Naval Hospital and in November 1969, he boarded the USS Mauna Loa, and with only one other senior corpsman cared for the complement of 250 men. He spent the next three years sailing between the shores of NJ to ports in the Mediterranean.  He always spoke of these four years as formative, not only in his drive to later go into medicine but also in his growth and identity. 

After his honorable discharge from the Navy in 1973, he began another highlighted four years at Colorado College (CC).  It took only a few days to meet the woman to whom he would be married for 43 years, Nancy Nettleton, a classmate in his freshman seminar course. In keeping with his personality, Guy made so many lifelong friendships at CC while playing for the Men’s Soccer Team, hiking in the San Juan Mountains, playing pick-up soccer and ice hockey, and befriending faculty members, some only a few years older than him. College revealed his unprecedented work ethic; he graduated with a degree in biology. 

On August 12, 1978, Guy Jackson and Nancy Nettleton were married in Guilford, CT and lived in Bolton, MA for the next 28 years. In 1981 they welcomed their first child, Lydia Burr Jackson, followed by a son, Patrick Fiske Jackson in 1983. Guy loved his children and was a strong proponent of getting the kids outside and putting them to work shoveling snow, stacking wood, picking rocks out of the garden and tossing them into the bucket of his beloved Kubota tractor, breaking trails through the woods on cross country skis, playing pond hockey and skating the perimeter of ponds large and small, sailing around Dead Neck Island, biking great distances, or climbing mountains. He taught his children how to succeed by holding the values of work, love of nature, and trustworthiness.  

In 1987, Guy attended Duke University’s Physician Assistant Program and returned to work at Mass General Hospital in Boston. He spent the remainder of his 40-year career as a PA in Cardiology and Electrophysiology labs and offices at MGH, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Beth Israel Hospital. He worked as a trusted colleague, teacher and mentor. He respected and cherished his coworkers and other staff who were part of his daily routines, but above all, he loved his patients. He loved getting to know them as people, hear their life stories, and celebrate their lives with them.

Although he and Nancy loved to travel, Guy’s favorite hobbies kept him close to home. He liked nothing more than a day in his yard, planting dahlias, ambling between his barn and his gardens, driving his tractors around, building stone walls, feeding the goats and enjoying these unconventional pets, planting hundreds of bulbs, or organizing his tools in his barn. Guy and Nancy’s biggest endeavor on their homestead in Dublin was replacing their historic barn with a new post and beam one. He chose to paint it an unconventional light yellow and it now sits sparkling in the sunlight on their property. It brought him so much joy in the few years of his retirement. 

Within the last decade of his life, he was overjoyed to welcome his four grandchildren to the world: Edith Isabel McGown (2013) and Heidi Palmer McGown (2017) to Lydia Jackson and Paul McGown, and Macy Rae Jackson (2016) and Gordon Maddock Jackson (2018) to Patrick and Christie Farson Jackson. His brightest days in the past few years have been days spent giving tractor rides, reading to them, and providing them a home to come to and enjoy the wonders of animals, gardens, and space to roam and play in. 

Guy is survived by his wife Nancy Nettleton Jackson, his children and their spouses, Lydia and Paul of Portland, OR, and Christie and Pat, of Truckee, CA, as well as his grandchildren. He is also survived by his loving brothers and their spouses, Gardner Jackson III and Lori Jackson, Christopher Jackson and Sally Jackson, and Gordon Jackson and Nancy Bristow, as well as many loving nieces and nephews.  In lieu of flowers, please send donations to The Barnstable Land Trust, The Monadnock Conservancy, or Codman Community Farms in Lincoln, MA. A gathering in his honor will be held in his barn in May and services will be held in Cotuit, MA in July.

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