Brogan Honored With City Of Concord Proclamation, Feted By Friends And Family

CONCORD, NH — June 21 was Paul Brogan Day in Concord, as friends and family gathered to celebrate his life in the Cantin Room at the BNH Stage downtown.

Brogan passed away on Nov. 13, 2025, at the age of 75.

A few dozen people attended the event, with several being invited to speak.

Some, like performer Tony Vento Jr. and Katie Collins of the Capitol Center for the Arts, knew him for decades. Others, like Tori Berube of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, had only known him for a few years. But she became fast friends with the writer and conversationalist who produced dozens of adult education classes, mostly focused on cinema.

Also Read

• Obit: Paul Brogan, Beloved Concord Writer And Author, Musician, And Veteran, Passes Away At 75
• 200 of his 215 Concord NH Patch blog posts can be found here

Mayor Byron Champlin started the celebration off by reading a proclamation in Brogan’s honor, someone who was easily worthy of one.

Vento spoke about him and then sang a song accompanied by a pianist. At the end of the event, he led attendees in a rendition of “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be),” the 1955 hit single by Doris Day, a close friend of Brogan’s.

Andrea Isaak Elliot, the outgoing principal of Bishop Brady High School, commended Brogan as one of the school’s most active alumni, attending events and fundraisers and just being an all-around great booster of the Catholic school.

Authors Margaret Porter and Laura Knoy spoke about all their work together — the trio had become thick as thieves during the past few years, promoting authors, setting up events, and exchanging emails. Porter first met Brogan when he invited her, out of the blue, to appear on his Concord TV “Capital Area Chats” show. Knoy, holding back tears, read a short passage from Brogan’s last book, “A Sprinkling of Stardust Over the Outhouse: Musings, Memories, Madness and Pillow Talk!,” from 2022.

Jim Webber of Concord TV also shared thoughts on his longtime friendship with Brogan and commended him for his unwavering support for the community and for writing about complex issues, such as growing up gay in Concord in the 1960s and 1970s as a Catholic.

I also spoke about my two-decade relationship with Brogan, which began in October 2006, when he needed promotional help for an event in Concord featuring Jim Bailey performing as Judy Garland to support AIDS service orgs while I was working at WKXL. After Patch started publishing news in Concord five years later, he became a blogger. Brogan was named Blogger of the Year by the New Hampshire Press Association for his contributions to Concord NH Patch in 2014 (he produced more than 200 blog posts across 13 years), and although he lost his run for mayor in 2015, Patch named him a Patch Mayor for Concord. I also spoke about Brogan’s love of movies and the community, the Concord Theatre, and his role as an unending cheerleader for the city.

Alan Jesseman, Brogan’s husband, who set up the event, read from “The Concord Theatre; And Concord's Love Affair with the Movies,” published in 2019, and thanked people for celebrating Brogan’s life and legacy.

The Cantin Room also served Brogan’s favorite drink: Bacardi and Coca-Cola with three cherries.

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