Gary Singer

Gary Philip Singer of Lyman, Maine, passed away on Jan. 25, 2023, at the age of 76. He was born on July 20, 1946 in Boston to Samuel and Helen (Ackerman) Singer. He grew up in Dorchester and graduated from Boston Latin School in 1964. He received a BA in math from McGill University in Montreal in 1968. During the Vietnam War he served in the US Army Reserves and the Maine National Guard.
Gary first came to Maine in Dec. 1969 for a job as actuary with Union Mutual Life Insurance Co. He designed and programmed in Fortran a management information system giving the company extensive information about the experience of their disability income policies. The company became the leader in the industry in this product line. While there, he met his wife Paula (Noyes) Singer when they worked on a computer system together.
Following a move to Norwood, MA in 1979, Gary oversaw computer operations for several major corporations including H.P. Hood, Howard Johnson’s, and Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation. At Howard Johnson’s he successfully designed and installed two IBM computers, the network and the software associated the migration of their reservation system in-house, a fete written up in Computer World.
In 1994, Gary joined with his wife Paula (now a tax lawyer) in founding Windstar Technologies, Inc. to provide sophisticated software for dealing with the complex federal tax rules and procedures organizations must follow when making payments to foreign students and scholars. They grew the company to serve more than 450 client sites at colleges, universities, teaching hospitals and research institutes and the Library of Congress.
Gary liked working with tools and had many projects including building a new deck. He always had many challenging hobbies. He took up snorkeling and then scuba diving becoming certified on The Wall off Grand Cayman Island. He was an avid ham radio operator becoming proficient in Morse code at 20 words per minute. For better reception, he had a 50-foot tower installed in the back yard. He became an avid sailor safely piloting their successive sailboats and their trawler through the dangers of Boston Harbor, the coasts of Massachusetts and Maine (in the fog). He took up nature photography, traveling to Lubec to photograph the Puffins on Seal Island, a trip which triggered their retirement to Maine upon the sale of their company to Thomson Reuters in 2011. Gary was also an avid duplicate bridge player and with his partner, Paula, took up bridge again during their retirement after a 30-year hiatus from playing. They won the Maine State Championship in their class in 2016.
He is survived by his mother (now 101) of Potomac, MD, his wife of 46 years, Paula, daughter Samantha Singer and husband Kevin Spencer of Longmont, CO, step-daughter Beth Goodrich, husband Kevan Whitten and their twin daughters Grace and Rose Whitten of Lyman, brother Stephen Singer and wife Janet of Merrimack, NH, brother Dr. Richard Singer and wife Miriam of Potomac, MD, and numerous nieces and nephews and grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

Honored by Paula Singer