Montague, MA – Gregory Newth, 74, of Montague, Massachusetts, passed away on May 23, 2026, after a short and devastating illness from the tick borne Powassan virus.
He was the son of the late Donald and June Newth, growing up in West Hartford, Connecticut, where his creative genes were encouraged. In his early years he was taking things apart to see how they worked, advancing to building things, both in shop class and at home. His father encouraged him to “live his life upside down”, because once you are retired you may not be able to do the things you longed to do, while his mother instilled the confidence to succeed and explore.
His family spent summers camping and traveling, which led Greg to work at outdoor adventure programs including The Wilderness School and Infinite Odyssey where he led many trips. At Central Connecticut State College in the early 1970’s he joined the Outing Club, tried rock climbing and was hooked. He became a proficient rock climber, doing some first ascents in the Adirondacks, NH and CT and spending several summers climbing big walls throughout the US, often living out of a campsite with other climbers. This led to a job at Hampshire college teaching rock climbing.
Greg also started learning carpentry when he began working for Eddy Everett who soon encouraged him to start working for himself. After a few years at Hampshire, he quit and started his own business. Primarily working alone, he remodeled and built houses, did all the drawings and eventually all the excavating too.
In the early 1980’s he met Alice Strong Newth at the local contradances. Right away they knew they were the perfect match for each other. They built their house together and helped each other at work and at home; building things, gardening, raising hay and visiting with friends and relatives. They started picking up roadside litter and last summer Greg covered at least 44 miles of Montague roads, bringing many truckfulls to the transfer station.
Retiring from his carpentry business, Greg switched gears, setting up his own small machine shop. He taught himself, mastering the machines, refining them to a high level of precision, and made parts to repair equipment and other things around the house. He discovered there wasn’t a tool that could remove our cracked upper chimney flue tiles from the top so he built one. He taught himself Autocad, refined the tile remover, and developed more chimney cleaning tools as well as a needle recapping tool that reduces needle sticks.
He leaves many behind who will miss him dearly, his wife Alice; sister Nancy Greenfield and niece Jessica Greenfield, both of Italy; uncle Alan Katze of East Longmeadow; sister-in-law Sarah Strong of Hadley; niece Oriel Strong and husband Brett Cosby of Chicopee; Mary Anne Walker, Dwight Walker, Matthew Walker & wife Donna, all of North Carolina; Andrew Walker of California, and many other relatives, cousins and friends.
A celebration of Greg’s life will be held on Sunday June 28, 2026, from 2 – 5pm, at the First Congregational Church in Montague Center. Casual attire is preferred. In lieu of flowers, please contribute to your local conservation land trust, animal shelter or community youth program.
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