Hatfield, MA – John N McClellan, of Hatfield, MA, passed away peacefully in the early morning of March 23, 2026 at his home.
John was born on January 4th, 1954 to Mimi and Sam McClellan, and grew up on Avon Hill Street in Cambridge, MA. He earned a B.A. in jazz composition from the Berklee College of Music in 1979 and continued to cultivate a love of music all his life. After his time at Berklee, John and his late, dear friend Mikey Sylvester opened Sylvester & McClellan Construction, renovating numerous homes and buildings in and around Cambridge throughout the ’80s.
After a stint as a building inspector for the town of Wellfleet, MA, John enrolled in the engineering program at UMass Amherst in 1991 and graduated in 1999 after earning a B.S. in civil engineering, and an M.S. and Ph.D in environmental engineering. John joined Tighe & Bond in 2000, rising to Vice President in his 26 years with the company. He specialized in water treatment and environmental modeling, and served as an active volunteer with the New England Water Works Association, serving on the Scholarship and Filtration Committees. In 2016, NEWWA presented him with the Past Presidents’ Award for authoring the second most meritorious paper in the Journal of the New England Water Works in 2015.
John loved hiking in the mountains of New Hampshire and was on his second round of tackling the state’s 48 4,000-footers. He enjoyed spending time at his camp in the White Mountains, exploring in the woods, and being with his daughters, Elizabeth and Julia. He did at least one NYT Sunday Crossword puzzle every day, happily picked away at home improvement and autorepair projects, regularly practiced the flute, and loved to feed a large community of local birds.
He is survived by his two daughters and his siblings, Maggie and Charlie. Celebration of Life details to come.
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