Richard J. Gastonguay

Watertown – Mr. Richard J. Gastonguay, of Watertown, died Thursday, February 10, 2011 at the E.N. Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford. He was 66.

Born in Waltham on April 14, 1944, he was a son of the late Hector F. and Anna M. (Richard) Gastonguay. Richard was a 1962 graduate of St. Mary’s High School in Waltham. He attended Northeastern University in Boston before joining the United States Navy in 1963. After the Vietnam War he returned to school and graduated from Northeastern with a degree in electrical engineering.

Richard served two tours of duty in Vietnam, most of it spent aboard the destroyer USS Rupertus, the first ship to reach the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal when it suffered a devastating fire and series of chain-reaction explosions on July 29, 1967 during combat operations in the Gulf of Tonkin.

After his discharge from the service he married his sweetheart, Karyn M. Mosman of Watertown, in Saint Patrick’s Church in August of 1968. The couple lived in Waltham and in Belmont before moving to Watertown in 1976. He worked for several years for Digital Equipment Corporation. Richard was also a member of the USS Rupertus (DD851) Association and an adult leader of the Waltham Sea Scouts.

He leaves his wife of forty-two years, Karyn M. (Mosman) Gastonguay; his daughters, Kristin B. Hamblett and her husband, Sean, of Brookline, New Hampshire and Doris M. McNeill and her husband, Daniel, of Dixfield, Maine; his grandchildren Kyle and Sara Hamblett and Rebecca McNeill; his sisters, Jeanne Delaney of Waltham, Louise Griffith of Parrish, Florida and Claire Taber of Lake Worth, Colorado and many nieces and nephews.

Richard was also the brother of the late Lorraine Cormier.

Family and friends will honor and remember Richard’s life by gathering for calling hours in The Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham on Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. and again at 8 a.m. on Monday morning before leaving in procession to Saint Patrick’s Church, 212 Main Street, Watertown where his Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 9 a.m. Burial will be at 1:15 p.m. in Massachusetts National Cemetery, Bourne.

Memorial donations may be made to The Habitat for Humanity of Greater Boston, 273 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210 or to The Shriners Hospital for Children, P.O. Box 1510, Ranson, WV 02438-4510.