John Francis O’Callaghan, 86

MEREDITH — John “Jack” Francis O’Callaghan, 86, passed away at the New Hampshire Veterans’ Home, Tilton, on Dec. 7, 2019, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

Jack was born, the first of four boys, to James S. O’Callaghan and Helen (Knight) O’Callaghan on Aug. 3, 1933, in Lynn, Massachusetts. He graduated from Marblehead High School in 1951 and Colby College in 1958. He interrupted his college education to serve in the United States Air Force during the Korean Conflict. While in the Air Force, he was enrolled at Baylor University in Texas.

Jack grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and in 1957, the O’Callaghan family moved full-time to their Lake Winnipesaukee home, next door to the cottage that had been their summer residence since 1942. There he enjoyed fishing, boating, and water sports on Lake Winnipesaukee. He was a skilled alpine skier whose favorite locations included Tuckerman’s Ravine, Sugarloaf Mountain while at Colby, and ski areas throughout New England. His prowess at card-playing was well-known and respected. (Yes, he could count cards.) His other activities and interests were bird and deer hunting, painting and drawing, astronomy and photography, combining these last two by expertly photographing the Hale-Bopp comet from his field in Meredith in 1997.

Jack was an avid sports enthusiast. This included Formula One racing, traveling frequently to Watkins Glen, New York; Long Beach, California; and Montreal, Canada. He was also a passionate Boston sports fan of the Red Sox, Patriots, and Bruins.

After graduating from Colby College, he owned and operated a coffee shop in Stowe, Vermont. When the family-owned business, Tram Diamond Corporation, opened in 1959 in Winnisquam, Jack joined his father and brothers as a vice-president. He traveled internationally with his father to Japan to import mobile citizen band radios from Toshiba and within the United States traveled to trade shows in Nevada, California, and Louisiana, promoting Tram Diamond base units designed and manufactured at their Winnisquam facility. In the 1970s, Jack, on behalf of Tram Diamond, was instrumental in sponsoring professional race car driver Randy Lewis in the Can-Am Racing Circuit. In 1981, Jack and his wife, Nancy, opened a satellite dish/antenna business, Satellink Corporation, in Winnisquam, and later moved the business to Route 104 in New Hampton in 1987. In 2004, after 23 successful years, they retired to their home in Meredith.

Jack is survived by his loving wife of 46 years, Nancy Louise (Laurier) O’Callaghan, who cared for Jack for six years before he became a resident of the N.H. Veterans’ Home. He is also survived by his daughter, Cara Abrantes, and her husband, Joseph, of El Cajon, California, and their six children; his son, Sean O’Callaghan, and his wife, Treacy, of Sacramento, California; step-daughter Wendy Murdock of Hoschton, Georgia; brothers Ronald J. O’Callaghan of New Hampton and Richard A. O’Callaghan and his wife, Susan, of Meredith; and special niece, Robin (O’Callaghan) Lamprey, her husband, Scott, and their son, Jamie, of Moultonborough. He also leaves cousins Maureen Spina, Peter Wormstead, Ed Wormstead, and Kevin Wormstead of Massachusetts and Geraldine O’Brien of Bedford.

He was predeceased by his parents, Jim and Helen O’Callaghan, and his younger brother, Paul E. O’Callaghan, in 2012.

His wife, Nancy, and Jack’s family want to thank the N.H. Veterans’ Home doctors, RNs, LPNs, LNAs, and all the staff for their “over-the-top” compassionate, professional, and dedicated long-term care during Jack’s nearly seven years at the Veterans’ Home.

Private services will be in the spring at the convenience of the family.

For those who wish, the family suggests that memorial donations may be made in Jack’s memory to the charity of your choice.

Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 164 Pleasant St., Laconia, is assisting the family with the arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial, go to www.wilkinsonbeane.com.