NORWAY – John B. Head, 75, of Bethel, died in Norway on March 25 after a brief illness.

He was born in 1932, in Rumford, the son of Paul B. and Olive Akers Head of West Bethel, attended local schools and graduated from Gould Academy in 1950.

After graduation from Burdett College in Boston, he entered the U.S. Army and served at Fort Dix and Camp Kilmer in New Jersey, and the 8th Army in the Far East. Upon separation from active duty in 1955, he returned to the Far East as a civilian employee of the Department of Defense. During the next 15 years, he served in a variety of positions in Tokyo, Japan, and Naha, Okinawa. His final assignment was with the staff of the U.S. High Commissioner of the Ryukyu Islands.

Upon his return to the United States, he formed a business dealing in the philately and postal history of the Far East, specializing in Japan and the Ryukyus.

A charter member of the Bethel Rotary club, he served as president, secretary and treasurer of that Club. He was the treasurer of the Bethel Library for more than 25 years, during which the endowment of the library grew substantially. In addition, he served as a Bethel Water District trustee for more than 25 years, as well as a member of the supervisory body overseeing the Bethel Airport since the early 1980s.

Long the finance officer of the Mundt-Allen Post, No. 81, American Legion in Bethel, he also was a past president and board member of the Bethel Family Health Center for many years. He was a member of Pleasant Valley Grange 136 in West Bethel and a member of Oxford Pomona Grange 2, as well as the West Bethel Union Church. Since the early 1980s, he had been very active in the Bethel Historical Society as a trustee, annual fund chair and head of the investment committee. He was very involved in the Bethel bicentennial celebration in 1996, serving as treasurer of the Steering Committee.

He married the former Fumiko Ito in 1960, at the American Embassy in Tokyo, who survives along with one brother, David Head and his wife, Fran, of Gilead; and one sister, Mary Joyce Butler and her husband, Howard, of Union.

He was predeceased by one brother, Arthur L. Head.