Paul D. Guertin

Paul David Guertin, known to most as "PG" but to others as Susan's husband and Tara, Erin, and Colleen's father, and by everyone as a legend, sailed off confidently past the northern lights in the early morning of October 11, 2024. Born August 31, 1936, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Joseph Guertin and Helen Donovan, PG was never one to say no to an adventure, a chance at mischief, the opportunity to make someone laugh, or to give a good dog a scratch.

An avid downhill skier and sailboat skipper, PG had a lifelong passion for the spoils and thrills of the mountains and the sea. While dates and times are unclear and likely intentionally obscured, sometime around 1952, a young PG managed to finagle his way into the ownership of a Thistle sailboat, which he kept hidden from his father in the bushes near Winthrop harbor. Only after getting caught attempting to haul his boat to a Marblehead regatta did he confess that he viewed the pursuit of wind and speed more favorably than spending his time buried in engineering books.

While enrolled in Northeastern's Civil Engineering Program, PG had great opportunities to build things and bring people together, two of his favorite activities. On his first day of class, while waiting in an alphabetical line, he met his best friend, Steve Hazeltine, and the two proceeded to gallop around the globe with their skis, bikes, and golf clubs for the next 70 years. Together, they taught skiing at Wildcat in Gorham, New Hampshire, keeping their PSIA certification current for decades and setting in motion their love of skiing, which they later passed on to their children. In the summers, he served in the ROTC on the ice caps of Greenland, building communication towers and earning cash needed to support his seasonal extracurriculars.

PG first met his wife, Susan Shea, on a 1962 ski trip to Bartlett, New Hampshire. As fate would have it, Susan's father, John Shea, insisted that she start dating and drove her and a girlfriend to the White Mountains after they missed their bus. Curious about the New Year's Eve ruckus she heard from her hotel across the street, she ventured to the Ski Meisters ski club and found PG dancing and throwing eggs at his friends. Soon, Susan joined PG as a regular at the Saturday night ski club events with the late-night dances and frenzied egg fights. It wasn't long before Susan fell for his blonde hair, blue eyes, and zany sense of humor.

PG loved to drag Sue skiing and out onto his sailboat, boasting that she was the only girl tough enough to keep coming back. In their first year of dating, she broke her leg skiing at Cannon Mountain and almost drowned in Boston Harbor after capsizing on his dinghy. After that auspicious start and some time apart, Susan sent a Christmas card to Paul's mother, hoping it was just the nudge needed to rekindle their flame.

A year later, they were engaged while waiting at a traffic light on Beacon Street near Boston Common. It was there on that rainy night when they decided the only reasonable thing to do was make it official and get hitched. PG and Susan were married the day after Christmas in 1966 and moved to Marblehead in 1969. Their daughter, Tara, was born in 1974, and the family welcomed the twins, Erin and Colleen, in 1979.

PG started his civil engineering career at Metcalf & Eddy and later attended Harvard Business School's OPM Program while managing Linenthal, Eisenberg, Anderson (LEA Group) engineering firm. Thereafter, he became President and CEO of Guertin-Elkerton & Associates. If you live in New England, you have undoubtedly driven over a road or bridge or flushed your stuff to a wastewater facility he helped to shape. "When you go, it's the end for you, but it's the beginning for me," he would joke.

PG was friends with every public works and town manager from the Berkshires to Downeast Maine and likely took them all to a favorite watering hole or golf course to close the deal. Never one to sit still, he convinced his new employer to let him continue driving around New England and drum up new business after he sold the engineering firm.

If you saw PG at the Corinthian Yacht Club, he was inevitably on the porch "swapping lies" with the Etchells Fleet and informing anyone who would listen about the difficult task of ensuring all the boats in the harbor pointed in the same direction.

With his wife Susan, the Marblehead YMCA Aquatics Director, Paul dedicated his talents to building the YMCA's Children's Island pool and later fundraising and constructing the new Lynch van Otterloo YMCA on Leggs Hill Road. Paul served on the Y Board for 30 years, from 1983 to 2013, and was president from 1987 to 1990. Paul also devoted his time to training for the Pan Mass Challenge and raising money for Dana Farber Cancer Institute in honor of his late sister, Betty Ann Boals. Those involved with either cause would say it was his strong leadership and disarming humor that spurred the community into action.

If you knew PG, you knew he always had a story to tell and some clever words to fit any situation. He was never just watching TV on the couch; he was "practicing the luge" or "checking his eyelids for holes." When his daughters considered a new ice cream flavor, a line down a double-black diamond, a trip across the country, or a flight around the world, he always offered the same advice, "Life is a carnival; you should go on all the rides.”

Above all, PG was the proudest of his three daughters; his stories about their adventures were mostly true, only slightly embellished. A doting father and grandfather, loving husband of 58 years, and stalwart supporter of his community, Paul lived and loved large. His loss will be felt by many.

Paul is survived by his brother, Joseph Guertin, wife, Susan Shea Guertin; his three daughters, Tara Guertin, Erin Polo, and Colleen Parenteau; his son-in-laws Matthieu Parenteau and Arthur Polo; and his four grandchildren, Elliott and Alder Parenteau, and August and Chandler Polo. His sister, Elizabeth Ann Guertin Boals, died in 1981.

A funeral mass will be held on Friday, November 22, 2024, at 11:00 am at Our Lady, Star of the Sea Church, 85 Atlantic Avenue, Marblehead, MA; reception to follow at The Landing Restaurant, 81 Front St, in Marblehead. In lieu of flowers, please contribute to the children's programs at the Lynch/vanOtterlo YMCA. https://www.northshoreymca.org/donate/#donation-section