It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Lionel R. Ingram, Jr., of Exeter, N.H., who died suddenly after a short illness on March 7, 2025, at the age of 85. As a father, uncle, friend, career military officer, professor, and civil servant, he will be deeply missed.
Born into a military family in 1939, it was only natural for him to attend The Citadel. He did so for two years before transferring to The United States Military Academy West Point, where he completed all four years and graduated with the Class of 1963. In June of 1963, he married Katharine “Trina” Margeson, whom he met in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1948 when their fathers were stationed there following World War II.
After his graduation from West Point, Lionel began his 30-year military career with an assignment to the 1/81st Armor regiment at Fort Hood, Texas. In 1965, he attended Harvard University where he received his Master’s Degree in Public Administration. In 1967, as a troop commander of the 2/17th Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division, he did his first tour in Vietnam.
During this tour, Lionel earned a Soldier’s Medal, a Bronze Star with a V, a Bronze Star, and a Combat Infantry Badge. Following an assignment as a teacher at West Point, he served a second tour in Vietnam as a cavalry squadron operations officer and then as part of Military Advisory Command, Vietnam (MACV). Starting in August 1974, Lionel spent two years with the 1/1st Cavalry Regiment 1st Armored Division in Schwabach, Germany, and then for his third tour year was assigned the role of Deputy Inspector General for the 1st Armored Division. In 1977, Lionel and his family moved back to the United States, where they lived in northern Virginia while he worked at the Pentagon. In 1979, he was given command of the 1/64th Tank Battalion in Kitzingen, Germany. In 1982, he was stationed in Brussels, Belgium, where he served as the Deputy Director of the Policy and Plans Division of the U.S. Mission to NATO for the next five years. Following a short stint as the Academic Director of the NATO course at the National Defense University in Virginia, his last assignment was as the Military Attaché to Denmark and Lithuania. As a full Colonel, he retired from the United States Army in 1993, having received two Defense Superior Service medals, a Legion of Merit, and the Danish honor of Commander of the Order of Dannebrog.
In 1993, Lionel returned to Harvard University to get his Ph.D. in political economics and government. He then embarked on a nearly 20-year-long second career as a Murkland Principal Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of New Hampshire. He was a born teacher and greatly enjoyed the opportunity to share his knowledge, expertise, and experiences with his students. Between 1998 and 2003, he served as Co-Director of the Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) program, an outdoor camp in which high-school students learn and hone their leadership skills. Lionel changed the lives of many of the high school, undergraduate, and graduate students he taught. Creating relationships and providing guidance to these students long after they graduated. In addition to helping students, Lionel felt strongly about fulfilling his civic duty in his local community. He served two terms as an Exeter Selectman, with one of those years as Chairman. He also served as Chairman of the Town of Exeter River Committee and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Exeter Historical Society.
Lionel’s greatest joy, of course, was his family. He always loved to work in his office in the basement and hear the pitter-patter of young and older feet moving about the house above him, knowing that all his favorite people were all around him. He was an extremely generous and kind father and was known to show he was touched with a chin quiver, whether touched by a child’s theatrical performance or departing from his battalion command.
Lionel loved and was loved by the love of his life, Katharine “Trina” Ingram who predeceased him on January 10, 2024, his brother Jim, his children, Sarah, Katharine, and Ian, his daughter-in-law Amisha, his grandchildren, Gavin, Anwen, and Inika, his nieces and nephews, and his extended family and friends.
A service will be held on Saturday, May 10, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. at Christ Church in Exeter, New Hampshire. A private interment at the family site in the Newington Cemetery will follow later that afternoon. Brewitt Funeral Home, 14 Pine St., Exeter, NH is handling the arrangements. In lieu of flowers, please send memorial donations to St. Vincent de Paul, Food Pantry, 53 Lincoln Street, Exeter, NH 03833.