Deane B. Turner ’59 died on June 16, 2025, in Mashpee, Massachusetts.
(The following was provided by the Chapman Funeral Home on June 16, 2025:)
Deane Baldwin Turner ’59
Deane Turner, 88, of Mashpee, formerly of Gardner, MA, passed away on Monday, June 16, 2025. Born in Boston on January 25, 1937, to the late John and Frances (Overlock) Turner, formerly of Cambridge.
He graduated from Gardner High School, where he was a three-sport athlete, playing football, basketball, and track. He was the captain of the 1955 GHS Wildcat championship basketball team. He then attended Bowdoin College, where he graduated with a BA in economics in 1959.
Deane served two stints in the United States Army, first at Ft Leonard Wood in Missouri in 1959 and later in 1961 when he was recalled during the Berlin Crisis with the 150th Armored Cavalry, at Ft. Meade, Maryland.
Deane married his first wife, Sandra Sholes, in 1960. They had three beautiful children, Derri, Scott, and Greg. Sadly, they divorced in 1970.
In his professional career, Deane advanced through five companies: Union Carbide, Louis A. Allen Associates, Kaiser Permanente, Enlightened Leadership, and Lee Hecht Harrison. He worked in human resources, sales, management consulting, and management. He particularly loved his work as an organization development consultant with Union Carbide, working all over the US, Canada, Mexico, South America, Asia, and India. During his twenty years with LHH, where he advanced to SVP/GM, he helped thousands of employees and executives caught by corporate restructuring reinvent themselves in new careers and jobs. When he personally flunked retirement in 2002, he reinvented himself as a boat captain at the Wequasset Inn, a group leader at Grand Circle Travel, a teacher on Cape Cod, a career consultant, and an author, when he published his memoir, Adrift in Memories: Lessons Learned Leading a Nomadic Life.
In 1982, Deane met Gudrun Moore, the “Love of His Life,” and they married in 1984 in New Milford, CT. Since Gudrun also brought her three wonderful children from a prior marriage—Chris, Peter, and Monica—together they had six children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Deane and Gudrun lived on Candlewood Lake in CT until 1995 when they were transferred to Clearwater, FL. In 2000, they moved back to New England to Mashpee on Cape Cod, where they have been active in growing the start-up Mashpee Congregational Church and the Union Carbide Retiree Club of Cape Cod. Deane’s also been active in the Mashpee Men’s Club, where he served as moderator for three years and was active in leading fundraising efforts to support the B&GCC.
During their forty-one years of marriage, Deane and Gudrun did most everything together. Their greatest joy came when they were together with their family on and off the Cape. They were so proud of each of their children and grandchildren. They loved traveling, making several trips back to Sweden and trips all over Europe, Canada, Australia, and China. They also loved boating, particularly sailing with family and friends. He loved tennis, singing, and writing. They were both avid Patriots, Celtics, and Red Sox fans.
They made many close friends wherever they lived, and everyone who knew them loved them, and they will be sadly missed but remembered by all.