Board of Directors
Officers
Jeff Towle
President
Class of 1972
It’s been a wonderful 52 years since graduating from MV. My wife Marian, a wheat farmer’s daughter from western Kansas, and I have been married for 50 years. We have three children, two sons who are involved in our family insurance business, and a daughter who is in education. We are also blessed with six grandchildren.
After graduating from MV, I attended an insurance college in NYC for a year and a half but left to join my father in his business which I bought from him 20 or so years later. Surrounded by lots of great people and my two sons for the last 20 plus years, we have grown from a dozen or so people to over 150 people, comprising 15+/- separate companies doing business from northern Maine to RI. I judge this to be a fair amount of success for an underachieving student from The Valley. If I had only known then…
Along the way, my wife and I had many opportunities for travel, enough so I appreciate staying home. I have enjoyed passions for airplanes and flying, skiing, snowmobiling, dogs, woodworking and golf. I have been honored to serve on several non-profit boards and am pleased to have worked alongside some of my great friends (classmates, teachers, coaches and administrators) to play a part in establishing our own MV Alumni Association. It is my hope that this will provide a great opportunity for us all to give of ourselves to help strengthen future generations of MV students. I guess it’s true what they say, “eventually they all return to The Valley”.
My wife and I split our time now between our NH home in Henniker and our winter home in Fort Myers, Fl.
Scott Kirby
Vice President
Class of 1972
I grew up on Snow St. in Penacook, where my mother often reminded me we were on the other side of the tracks of Concord, which is why our streets were always plowed last. I quite enjoyed that as it snowed a lot on Snow St. back then, and I cherished the extra days off from school. I graduated from Merrimack Valley High School in 1972 with low honors of being elected class president and class clown, and also performed our class song at graduation , not realizing until decades later that politics and entertainment would essentially become one in the same! My election for class president is still in dispute, but I earned class clown fair and square.
After a short and uncelebrated academic stint, several bands and other brief and dubious forms of employment, I settled into an unlikely 9 year career in N.H. government and politics. I worked on 2 presidential campaigns, and managed a number campaigns for Governor, Congress and the United States Senate. I also became heavily involved in writing and producing TV commercials for many of these candidates and served as Chief of Staff for the NH House Minority Leader for 4 years.
In 1988, after tiring of the political grind and dark winters, I packed my car and sailboat and relocated to Key West to pursue employment playing my guitar and singing and writing songs. Through many late nights and an endless string of lucky breaks over 37 years, I managed to make a living and have recorded and released 9 albums of my own songs, and to this day maintain a 70 concert touring schedule each year to California and back.
Even though I’m still a resident of Key West, I’m only down there about 3 months a year these days. My partner Julie and I split the rest of our time between the coast of Maine and 4 cherished months a year in the French harbor town of Villefranche, which is nestled on the Mediterranean Sea about 14 miles from the Italian border. I’ve been an avid sailor since buying my first sailboat at 19 years of age, and continue to play tennis every chance I get and feel lucky to have an occupation that is my avocation. For the past 5 years I’ve also partnered with an Irish friend to take 50 brave souls on a musical tour of Ireland, and in my spare time I am desperately trying to learn to speak French.
Through all of this, I manage to get back to Concord/Penacook a half dozen times a year to meet longtime schoolmates and teachers from the Valley for a drink or two, which is always a highlight of my year. I think it’s safe to say that the seed of our alumni organization was planted in these regular get-togethers, and I feel lucky to be involved. I hope you will join us!
Lynn Colby
Secretary/Treasurer
Class of 1972
Some of the best years of my life were spent at Merrimack Valley High School, where countless memories were made—prom nights, McDonald’s runs, watching Mr. Brandt play hockey on Friday nights, and having fun at the Sky-Hi Drive-In. I was even voted “Best Dancer” during my senior year! Those four years remain vivid in my mind.
During my senior year, I joined the Work Study Program, which led to my first professional job at Blue Cross Blue Shield of NH/VT, where I became their youngest employee at just 17 years old. After graduation, I stayed with BCBS for 22 years, marking the beginning of my rewarding career in the insurance industry.
At BCBS, I eventually became Supervisor of Document Processing. After 13 years in that role, I transitioned to become the Executive Assistant to the Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
When BCBS moved to Manchester, I decided to explore new opportunities.
One of the highlights of my career was working at Cigna, where I retired after 19 years. I had the privilege of serving as the Executive Assistant to the President and General Manager of the New England Region. In this role, I played a key part in organizing and supporting events like the New England Wellness Council, NH Top Docs, the Dempsey Challenge, and the Cigna/Elliot 5K Corporate Road Race. My colleagues often remarked on the passion, dedication, and positive energy I brought to work every day—qualities that defined my time at Cigna. I was proud to be part of the Best of the Best team, colleagues who, even in retirement, remain some of my closest friends.
Now retired, I live with my husband, Jimmy Colby, on a beautiful Christmas tree farm in Boscawen, NH. We’ve been together for 25 years and are truly blessed to be enjoying a wonderful life together.
As the poet Mary Oliver beautifully put it: “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Bob Tewksbury Class of 1978
It’s surreal to believe that a kid from Salisbury, NH, who had a dream of being a Major League Baseball player actually had a chance to live that dream. When I was a kid in Salisbury, I would go to the nearby elementary school and throw baseballs against the brick school wall, imagining I was pitching for the Red Sox. Well, I never did pitch for the Sox, but I was able to pitch for six Major League teams, win 110 games, and make an All-Star team. It all started at Rolfe Park in 1975.
While my professional journey had some hurdles to overcome, the relationships I had with MV coaches like Coach Anderson, the late Jim Denham, and Principal Bob Norton helped me navigate these trying times. I retired after the 1998 season, and over the next several years, I was able to spend time helping coach my kids’ various sports teams as I also completed my undergraduate degree from St. Leo University.
My wife Laura and I also became heavily involved with the Concord Boys and Girls Club, as well as several other charity organizations over the years. In 2003, I returned to college to earn a master’s degree in sport psychology and counseling from Boston University, and in 2004, I started the Mental Skills program with the Boston Red Sox. I worked with the Red Sox in that capacity for 12 years and was with the team in 2013 when the Sox won the World Series. I also worked for the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs in the same capacity.
In 2018, my book Ninety Percent Mental was published. In 2020, I started my own mental skills consulting practice, working with various college and professional athletes across the country. Laura and I have been married for 36 years, and I now reside in Wells, Maine.
Greg Carbone Class of 2001
Directors
David Crawford
Director / Co-Chair Social Media Committee
Class of 1974
MVHS provided an excellent learning and athletic environment to develop skills that allowed me to be successful in life. I have almost 50 years of management and leadership positions serving in military, government, and private sector positions. I enlisted in the Air Force as a Law Enforcement Specialist (police officer) and after serving four years I was commissioned as an Air Force Officer. I flew as a Weapons Controller (think air intercept and targeting) in the back end of the E-3A AWACS aircraft assigned to the 963rd Airborne Warning and Control Squadron. After that tour I served most of my Air Force career as a Special Agent in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations to include leadership positions as the Director, Air Force Counterespionage and Deputy Director, Air Force Counterintelligence. After 26 years in the Air Force, I served as a civilian Special Agent in the Department of Defense, as the Deputy Director, Joint Counterintelligence Analysis Group, and Deputy Director, Strategy and Transformation at the newly established Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity. Post 9-11 I assisted in developing a joint DOD and FBI initiative which became the Foreign Terrorism Tracking Task Force. After leaving government service I became the Vice President, National Security Initiatives at Gray Hawk Systems, and a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President at Kingfisher Systems a service-disabled veteran owned business. During the war in Afghanistan, I managed a seventy-five person boots on the ground team providing intelligence and counterintelligence analysis to US Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A). After a 5-year travel sabbatical I returned to work and served as the Director, Cyber-Intelligence for Barbaricum a disabled veteran owned business providing intelligence analysis and support services to the Intelligence Community. I recently finished a year as an intelligence and terrorism threat analyst for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and I am now retired. I earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland in Psychology and Law Enforcement, a Master Science Degree in Strategic Intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College, where I was the recipient of the Lyman Kirkpatrick Defense Intelligence Research Award for the Outstanding Master’s Thesis of the Year and a Master of Public Administration Degree from Troy State University. I authored Volunteers: The Betrayal of National Defense Secrets by Air Force Traitors. My wife Priscilla retired from Raytheon where she was a Security Manager. She served on the Board of Directors for the National Classification Management Society (NCMS) and was instrumental in establishing the Industrial Security Program and certification for government and industry security professionals. We have been married almost 44 years and live year-round in Sarasota Florida
Jan Raymond
Co-Chair - Social Media Committee
Class of 1974
Sara Rogers
Co-Chair - Website Committee
Class of 2000
Contributors
Dave Anderson
Former MV Teacher & Coach
Sam York
Class of 1988
Current MVHS Principal
Kenny Edwards
Current Athletic Director
Kim Kenney
Class of 1984
Former BES Teacher