Necrology
Frederic Robert Pilch '50
Mar. 18, 1927-Aug. 26, 2021
Frederic “Fred” Robert Pilch ’50, P’83 of Hopkinton, N.H., died on Aug. 26, 2021, at Havenwood Heritage Heights, a senior residential facility in Concord, N.H., where he had resided for the past several years.
Like many of the Greatest Generation, Fred’s college career began after military service in World War II. He was born in Bloomfield, N.J., on March 18, 1927, graduated from Bloomfield High School in 1944, and shortly afterward enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for two years in Germany. Six months after his discharge, he entered Hamilton, which like colleges across America in the post-war years was welcoming a large number of returning veterans. His daughter, Kathryn E. Pilch ’83, recalled him saying he began his studies on the Hill in the summer before what would have been his freshman year, finding the opportunity to enroll in small classes a valuable means of transition from military to academic life.
Fred was a member of the Emerson Literary Society and majored in history, winning the Putnam Prize in American History in his senior year. As a sophomore, he served on the staff of WHC, then the College’s AM radio station. In both his junior and senior years, he served as sports editor for The Hamiltonian.
In 1954, Fred married Mary Elizabeth Depping, whom he had met at a church singles group, in Bloomfield. They had three daughters. Tragically, Mary was killed in an automobile accident in June 1983, shortly after Kathryn completed her Hamilton degree.
After graduation, Fred was admitted to the law school of Rutgers University, but even though both his father and grandfather were lawyers, he did not find this field appealing. Instead, banking would be his calling. He began his career in 1956 at the Mechanics National Bank in Concord, N.H., and remained until his retirement 36 years later as senior vice president and trust officer of what had by then become the Bank of New Hampshire. Much of his career had been devoted to handling trusts and estates.
Believing that one should give back to the community, Fred served both his adopted hometown of Hopkinton and its larger neighbor Concord. He was a member of the board of trustees of Concord Hospital and also served on the boards of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, The White Mountain School (a college preparatory school), the Rolfe and Rumford Home for Girls, the Hopkinton Historical Society, and Child and Family Services of New Hampshire. He also volunteered at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Hopkinton. His chief interest, according to Kathryn, was “protecting the environment, wildlife, and woodlands of New Hampshire.”
In addition to his daughter Kathryn E. Pilch ’83, Frederic R. Pilch is survived by his two daughters, his brother, and two grandchildren.
