Roger Gerard Talbot, 83, an award-winning journalist for the New Hampshire Sunday News, died April 22, 2026, in the Intensive Care Unit at Concord Hospital. Just eight days prior he had been cleaning up his yard, when he suffered a devastating fall. The Pembroke ambulance transported him to the hospital, where serious spinal cord damage was diagnosed.

Roger had lived in Pembroke since 1979, initially with his first wife, Janet Bragg, whom he met in Conway, N.H., while teaching special education at Kennett High School. Teaching afforded him a much-desired deferment from the draft during the Vietnam era.

Roger was born in Salem, Mass., the son of the late Felix Rene and Florence Adeleine Gagnon Talbot. He attended Catholic schools in Salem. He graduated from Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., in 1964, and from Boston University with a master’s degree in journalism in 1966. When his dream of serving the underprivileged in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer did not materialize, he sought work teaching and writing.

He began his reporting career at his hometown newspaper, the Salem (Mass.) Evening News, and was a reporter for the Davenport (Iowa) Times-Democrat before joining the Concord Monitor staff in 1970. While at the Concord Monitor, Roger was named a master reporter in 1973. In 1979, he became employed full-time at the Manchester Union Leader, now the New Hampshire Union Leader.

He moved from nightside reporter with the Union Leader to become an investigative reporter for the New Hampshire Sunday News. Roger’s many awards included a 1989 First Place for Investigative Reporting award from the New Hampshire Press Association. Roger provided in-depth coverage in the New Hampshire Sunday News of disgraced Newport District Court Judge John C. Fairbanks, who stole $1.8 million from clients and fled to Canada to elude justice before committing suicide in a Las Vegas hotel. He was honored in 2002 as a “Master Reporter” by the New England Society of Newspaper Editors. At the time of the award, then Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Joseph W. McQuaid commended Roger’s ability to move seamlessly from reporting hard news and complicated issues to writing tender, engaging human interest stories. “Roger was a dogged, diligent reporter, who kept himself out of the stories he told,” McQuaid said Wednesday.

Talbot was well-respected by his peers and was a mentor to many younger reporters at the paper. “Roger was a reporter truly admired by his peers. Quiet, disciplined, smart and unafraid. He told complex stories in a clear and accurate style that served New Hampshire well,” former Union Leader Executive Editor Charlie Perkins said. “He was a fine man and will be missed.”

In December of 2005, Roger took a buyout from the Union Leader and settled into quiet retirement with his second wife, Betsy Swan. His days consisted of maintaining his home, stoking the wood stove, shopping for the household’s groceries and reading and watching the news. He and Betsy took a few trips to ride restored trains in Colorado and to admire the sites of Hawaii and Alaska. Their numerous vacations to Acadia in the early spring were fun times with hiking numerous trails and carriage roads, enjoying the scenery of the Maine coast, lakes, and mountains and photographing the stone bridges built by John D. Rockefeller.

Roger had an extensive Lionel train layout in his basement that incorporated engines, cars and accessories, some that he bought new and others that he refurbished from his youth. He spent hours crafting a plot of scenery or a building. Seldom was there a train show in the area that he missed.

His wife Betsy and his younger sister, Gloria Talbot, of Salem, Mass., already miss him. As a very private individual, Roger did not wish to have any funeral or memorial service. Arrangements are being made through The Cremation Society of New Hampshire.

Contributions in Roger’s memory may be made to the NH Center for Public Interest Journalism (InDepthNH.org), 38 Edgewater Drive, Barrington, NH, 03825, or the charity of one’s choice.