Doreen Frances (Sylvia) Nelsen, 79, passed away peacefully Thursday, February 3, 2022, at her home in Fairhaven from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. She was the loving wife of 53 years to Merchant Marine Captain Dean F. Nelsen. Raised in Mattapoisett, Doreen was the daughter of Frank F. Sylvia of Mattapoisett and Mary (Benton) Sylvia of Dartmouth. Both parents are deceased.

            Doreen spent most of her adult life in Fairhaven. For 34 years, she served as a music teacher, rising to become the Director of Fine Arts for the Fairhaven Public Schools. She not only supervised the music and arts teachers throughout the system, but also taught daily choral music classes. Three generations of Fairhaven students saw their beloved “Mrs. Nelsen” as the enthusiastic and passionate music teacher who set the bar high and demanded their best efforts. Under her creative leadership, students will remember numerous musical operettas from Gilbert and Sullivan operettas to amazing orchestral performances. She identified talented and gifted students whom she would nurture and assist throughout their musical careers.

            Doreen began her own musical career at age 7 when she started piano lessons and was quickly recognized as being musically gifted. At age 10, she was playing concerts at the Mattapoisett Grange Hall, and by age 12, she was playing the organ for services in her parish church. After attending Mattapoisett Schools, Doreen graduated from Fairhaven High School in 1960. She earned her bachelor’s degree in music from Manhattanville College, and a master’s degree from the Hartt School of the Arts, at the University of Hartford. Doreen first taught music in New Britain, CT, and later in Wareham, Mattapoisett and finally in Fairhaven where she remained for the rest of her career.

            Doreen was renowned for her annual productions of the Acushnet Classic Ensemble (ACE), a summer orchestra comprised of motivated student musicians recruited from throughout the region. Among the many free offerings for the community, Doreen created Concerts in the Park, at the Cushman Park Band Shell.  She was a committed member of the board of directors of FAME, the Fairhaven Association for Music Education. She was a proud member of Delta Kappa Gamma, a sorority of educators, and she was also a devoted member of the Fairhaven Colonial Club. She was honored by being listed in “The Who’s Who among America’s Teachers” and in 2003, Doreen was named the Fairhaven Citizen of the year. She retired from her teaching position in 2007.

            Doreen is survived by her devoted husband, Captain Dean Nelsen; her loving son, Dr. Derek Andrew Nelsen and his wife, Jen Huang, and their two sons, Owen S. Nelsen, and Benjamin D. Nelsen, from Chapel Hill, NC; her two sisters, Nancy K. Paquin, and Beverly J. Sylvia-Boska; and two sisters-in-law, Linda Barker of Michigan and Inez Richards of Arizona; and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins from the Southcoast area. Doreen was the mother of the late Craig Stuart Nelsen.

            According to Doreen’s wishes, she will be cremated. Due to the presence of Covid-19, no gathering will be held at this time. Friends and family members will be invited to a Celebration of Life on Doreen’s birthday, September 26, 2022, at the Nelsens’ home in Fairhaven, weather or COVID permitting.

            Please honor the family’s kind and respectful wishes for no calls or visitors during this period of grief and mourning.

            In lieu of flowers, donations are requested for a memorial music scholarship in Doreen’s name that is being organized by her son, Dr. Derek A. Nelsen. Please mail or submit on-line to: The Doreen F. Nelsen Music Education Scholarship Fund (https://www.gofundme.com/f/doreen-f-nelsen-music-education-scholarship-fund) or checks may be mailed to P.O. Box 4 Fairhaven, MA 02719. It is the family’s hope that a scholarship can be presented each year to a FHS graduating senior who will carry on Doreen’s legacy in pursuing a career in music or music education.

            Arrangements are by the Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals, 495 Park St., New Bedford. For online condolence book, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.

Patricia A. (Gamble) Sherman, 85, of Fairhaven died January 31, 2022 at Tobey Hospital.

            She was the wife of the late Gerald Sherman.

            Born in New Bedford, daughter of the late Charles C. and Hazel B. (Hammond) Gamble, she lived in New Bedford before moving to Fairhaven in 1971.

            Mrs. Sherman was formerly employed as a secretary of the Special Needs Director for the Fairhaven School Department for many years until her retirement.

            She enjoyed bird watching, walking, traveling to Georgia and Cape Cod, and spending time with family and friends, especially her beloved Grandson Weston.

            Survivors include her son, Wayne Sherman and his wife Maria of Dartmouth; a daughter, Carla Sherman of Alpharetta, GA; a brother, Robert Gamble of Fall River; a sister, Barbara Santos of New Bedford; a grandson, Weston Sherman; and several nieces and nephews.

            She was the sister of the late Hazel Damazo, Miriam Silva, Richard Gamble, Henry Gamble and Donald Gamble.

            The family would like to extend a special thank you to Tremont Rehabilitation and Skilled Care Center for the outstanding care she received during her stay there.

            Her visiting hours will be held on Sunday, February 6th from 1-5 pm in the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd. (Rt. 6), Mattapoisett. Her Funeral Service will be held on Monday, February 7th at 11 am in the funeral home. Burial will follow in Cushing Cemetery. For directions and guestbook, visit www.saundersdwyer.com.

Clarence Frederick Fountain, of Wyandotte and Trenton, MI, Mattapoisett, MA, and Zephyrhills, FL departed this world on Sunday, January 30, 2022, after 98 eventful years among us.  Clarence was the youngest of three children for Rolland and Caroline (Manthe) Fountain. His earliest memories include rumble-seating across Michigan in the Roaring Twenties, while his father’s band played from gig to gig.  The Depression bought out some of his best skills, as he became a star salesman who helped support his family and live-in cousins, even at age 15.

            WWII let his luck shine through, as a combat-decorated, infantry Sergeant (Bronze Star, Expert CIB, etc.) in the front lines of the ETO, whose division (the 78th) suffered severe casualties in the battles of Kesternich, the Bulge, Remagen Bridge, Hurtgen Forest, and Ruhr Pocket.  Clarence was more than once wounded himself, but looking around the field hospital at the much more serious casualties, he was too embarrassed to wait around to accept a Purple Heart.  Instead, he just got patched up and went back to work.  Stationed with the Occupation Force for a time, he would much later recount his post-war “black market” adventures and all too surreal meetings with Soviet troops, but his grandkids just knew those could not really have happened.

            Afterwards, Clarence, his brother Danny, and some of his war-time buddies went into various businesses in Wyandotte, Trenton, and Toledo.  All the while, he and his wife, Lois (Sisson), began to accumulate an embarrassingly large collection of amateur bowling trophies.  Of course, every two years was the formal reunion for his combat unit survivors and their families, and the list of god-children and nieces and nephews (formal and otherwise) got ever longer.  Republican Party politics also became a life-long passion with Clarence starting after the War, debating all comers at all times with gusto.

            In 1965 he moved with his young family to Mattapoisett, working for Rodney Metals in New Bedford and New York.  Clarence became active in community and church matters (Trinity Lutheran Church in Fairhaven), including serving as Scout Master of Boy Scout Troop 53.  He was blessed by several lifelong friendships also in Mattapoisett.  At the same time, for a few years he ran a seasonal lobster boat in Buzzards Bay, since fresh lobster was a delicacy few of his Michigan visitors ever tired of.  In 1972, he founded another business of his own, Valo Products, in Fairhaven, and continued with that company, widely expanding its product lines, until his retirement.

            That brought Clarence to Florida, just north of the Spring Training camp for his beloved Detroit Tigers.  Of course, “retirement” meant cutting back to a mere 40 hour work week, while he supplemented his income by fixing up and flipping houses in Zephyrhills, as a “hobby.”  Also on the positive side, Florida meant more poker nights and close friendships with neighbors like Dave and Mary, at least when he was in town.  Within the extended family, it was well known that if there was a party anywhere, Clarence was happy to fly up and join in.  Family also knew that a “party” included any construction project or home repair chore.  Well-traveled in North America during his business career, retirement also let him travel to Europe and the Mid-East for a bit, checking out the pyramids and other monuments that were actually built before his day.

            However, eventually the 13 survivors of the 1942 “G” Company, 309^th Infantry Regiment, became only one, and then he left to join them.

            Clarence’s body will be laid to rest with military honors at Michigan Memorial Park, in Flat Rock, MI, near graves of his parents and relations.  Still here to remember Clarence as family are his children and their spouses, Ryan (and Linda), Gary (and Jenni), and Valri, along with ten grandchildren, eight great and great-great grandchildren, and an abundance of nieces, nephews, and extended relations (probably most of Michigan).  We all said that he could not leave until the Detroit Tigers won another World Series, so this year perhaps they will.  In the meantime, in lieu of flowers, if you are thinking of Clarence, you could hoist a new flag next November 11.

Barbara Susan (Greenwood) Murray died on January 29, 2022, when her heart finally gave out after 91 years and 7 months of life. She was the only daughter of Charles Greenwood and Doris (Peroski) Greenwood, and the beloved wife of Paul V. Murray, whom she married in 1953 and who died in 2005, after 52 years of marriage. Barbara lived in Fairhaven for over six decades, but was born and raised in the North End of New Bedford, near St. Killian’s Church, and that’s always where she considered herself to be “from.”

            Barbara graduated at the top of her class at Holy Family High School in 1948, and then worked in the Industrial Engineering Department at the former Revere Copper and Brass from 1950 to 1957. Once all of her children were of school age, she began working in the Superintendent’s Office of the Fairhaven Public Schools, and remained there for eighteen years, until she retired in the early 1990s. In retirement she was a volunteer for hospice for several years.

            One of her prized possessions was her rosary beads, which were made of sterling silver and which she won in 1944 for having the highest grade point average in her 8th grade class at St. Killian’s Grammar School. She cherished those rosary beads, and said the rosary with them every day for 78 years.

            Barbara never got the opportunity to go to college. Instead, she and Paul sacrificed and saved and put all seven of their children through college. We could say that Barbara loved to travel and read suspense novels and go to restaurants and movies and spend time with her family; that she loved Jeopardy! and would have been an excellent contestant on that show; that she knew how to braid rugs and sew and knit and made the best French fries and apple pies; that she was smart and determined and curious until the very end of her life (even asking that the Sunday newspaper be read to her just a few days before she died).

            We could say all that, but she disliked flowery obituaries, so we’ll just say that she was predeceased by her husband Paul, and is survived by her children: Susan Murray (and spouse Karen Hibbard) of Burlington, Vermont, Christine (and Christopher) Blake of Taunton, Cindy Anderson of Taunton, Paula (and Jerry) Burke of Nashua, New Hampshire, Timothy Murray (and Anne Marie) of Attleboro, John Murray (and Danielle) of Marion, and Carolyn Murray (and Christopher Harrison) of Hingham. She is also survived by her Italian “daughter,” Nadia Fornasiero, of Milan, Italy, who lived with the family as an exchange student from 1984-1985, and remained close to Barbara and the family for all these years. Barbara is also survived by her fourteen grandchildren: Daniel and Brendan Blake, Andrew and Matthew Anderson, Brian Burke (and wife Dana), Maggie, Colin and Liam Burke, Ryan and Owen Murray, Jack, Peter, and Anna Murray, and Campbell Paige Harrison; and finally, her two great-grandchildren, Rory and Molly Burke. Barbara’s family was her great joy. She joins her partner, best friend, and love of her life, her husband Paul, in Heaven, where she hopes he has finally learned how to dance.

            In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Barbara’s memory to the St. Joseph’s Indian School, P.O. Box 326, Chamberlain, SD 57326 (a school providing education and housing for Native American children in need that Barbara supported for years).

            Her Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Friday, February 11th at 11 am in St. Joseph’s Church. Burial will follow in St. Anthony’s Cemetery. Visiting hours are omitted. Arrangements are with the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd. (Rt. 6), Mattapoisett. For directions and guestbook, visit www.saundersdwyer.com.