Israel Yost
November 17, 1949-September 29, 2022
Israel Jonathan Yost died in Durham, NH, on September 29, 2022, aged 75. The cause was brain cancer. He was a man of principles, whose modesty belied his intelligence and range of talents and interests – carpenter, programmer, photographer, and scholar; teacher, coach, union negotiator, and volunteer; athlete, reader, and jazz lover.

Israel was born on November 17, 1946, in Tower City, Pennsylvania, to Peggy and Israel A.S. Yost. He attended the University of Hawaii and then Upsala College in New Jersey, graduating magna cum laude in 1968. In New York City and California, he worked for the North American Congress on Latin America, helping to document, in his words, “the devastating domination of poorer peoples around the world by the U.S. and other advanced western nations.” His concern for social justice and interest in Latin America would continue throughout his life.

Israel arrived in New Hampshire “just in time for the blizzard of ’78.” He worked as a carpenter in partnership with his brother Chris. He skied, played basketball, and rock climbed extensively - meeting his wife, Deborah Winslow, through climbing. In 1985, they had a son, Gabriel, and in 1988, he and his brothers Chris and Peter built the family a house of Israel’s design in Lee, NH: in accordance with Israel’s environmentalism, it was a prescient example of energy-efficient building, an open, airy home that could nonetheless be heated with a single wood stove.

An encounter with an Apple Mac in the mid 80s sparked an interest in computers, and he began taking programming classes at the University of New Hampshire (and at Pune University in India, where he and his family lived in 1989). He received his master’s in Computer Science from UNH in 1991, and went on to teach at UNH until 2018. At UNH, he helped to found the Information Technology major, and to negotiate the first collective bargaining agreement for the UNH Lecturers United union.

Israel treated service to others as a natural, fundamental part of life. His own beliefs and enthusiasms were generally expressed not in words but in actions. His environmentalism found expression in his yearslong service (mostly as chair) on the Solid Waste Committee for the Town of Lee, and in his regular walks along the roads near his house to pick up trash.

He was a jazz fanatic and a longtime member of the Seacoast Jazz Society, including as its treasurer, and interim president for a number of years.  Izzy was an active member of the society and helped organize the annual Tommy Gallant Jazz Festival and other concerts, and to expand its scholarship and education programs.