Allen N. Clapp

“…we now look to you for leadership and example in further exalting our country in peace.” wrote President Harry Truman upon the honorable discharge of all who served in World War II. Allen Clapp adopted this as his moral compass throughout his 96 years.

Al was born November 30, 1924 in Waban, MA to John Stetson and Emma Nickerson Clapp. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1943 and then answered our country’s call by enlisting in the U.S. Army and serving in the European theater.

After the war, Al attended and graduated from Yale University. He was proud of his four-year participation on the Yale hockey team, of which he was the captain his senior year. He maintained a life-long interest and allegiance to the Yale hockey team.

Following graduation, Al married Deborah Price in 1950, and they raised five children together in both the Boston and Chicago areas. During these years, he enjoyed coaching his children’s youth sports teams. The family enjoyed weekends year-round at their home on Lake Winnipesaukee, pursuing water sports in the summers and skiing in the winters.

Al spent the first twenty years of his career managing two manufacturing businesses: New Jersey Rubber Company in Taunton, Massachusetts and American Envelope Company in Chicago, Illinois. In 1971, Al shifted gears and entered the executive search field with Spencer Stuart and Associates in Chicago, and subsequently founded two such firms and concluded this second career with Heidrick and Struggles in Boston in 1994. He was one of the premier health care recruiters in the field.

In 1982 Al married Nancy Reagle. Al’s retirement years were productive and personally fulfilling ones of volunteer service~American Red Cross, Executive Service Corp, Boston Children’s Hospital. He, in collaboration with Nancy, developed a model elementary school library at the Edward Everett School in Dorchester, Massachusetts for which they received a commendation from the Mayor of Boston.

The Clapps relocated from Boston to Jaffrey, New Hampshire in 2004 and before long Al joined the Jaffrey Rindge Rotary Club, which became a launching pad for new volunteer activities. He was one of the founders of the Rotary day camp for middle school students~ Camp Quest, later to become Camp Best~ and never missed a day of camp for eight years. In 2018 he received the Paul Harris Fellow Award exemplifying the Rotary motto “Service Above Self.”

He was serving as interim director of The Cathedral of the Pines when the ice storm of 2008 devastated the site. Al and his dedicated team rebuilt and redesigned the place into what it is today. In his last decade, Al volunteered at the Cheshire and Monadnock Hospitals and in the Jaffrey Middle and Elementary Schools in the math programs.

Al was pre-deceased by his older brother John. Surviving Al are his wife, Nancy, sons Allen, Jr, Plain, WI, Jeffrey (Beth Malloy) Moab, UT, David (Mary Anne) Marietta, GA, daughters Judith (Mark) Wall, Northbrook, IL, Lindsey (Joe) Ramsak, Bristol, WI, stepchildren Amy Meyers, Jaffrey, NH, Ted (Terry O’Hara) Reagle, Guilford, CT, and John (Cynthia Davis) Reagle, Columbia, SC, 15 grandchildren,4 great grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews.

A memorial service is planned for Saturday, May 29th at 11:00am at The Cathedral of the Pines, Rindge, New Hampshire.

In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made in Al’s name to The Cathedral of the Pines, Rindge, New Hampshire or the Jaffrey-Rindge Ambulance, Jaffrey, New Hampshire.