Born: 03/29/1939
Hyannis, MA
Died: 03/13/2026
Montpelier, VT
Details of service:
A celebration of Nat’s life will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday Aug. 15 in the Vestry of the Unitarian Church, Montpelier. All are welcome.
Donations in Nat’s memory to The Bridge, the Adamant Co-op, or Heaton Woods Residence, Montpelier, where Nat was cared for with love and dignity in the last months of his life.
Nathaniel “Nat” Frothingham, 86, died peacefully on Friday, March 13, 2026 at Central Vermont Medical Center, after a short illness.
Born March 29, 1939 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, the second child of Theodore “Ted” Frothingham of Bass River, Cape Cod, and Nanneen P. Rebori, of Chicago, Illinois, Nat grew up in Chicago with his sister and their mother, and their grandfather, architect Andrew Rebori.
Nat earned his BA Hons in English Literature in 1961 from Harvard College. He travelled to Uganda and Kenya with “Teachers for East Africa”, studying for a diploma in education at Makerere University College, Kampala then teaching at the Alliance High School in Kenya.
Returning to the U.S., Nat obtained his Master’s in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He moved to Vermont in 1971. Here he dedicated himself to serving the central Vermont community with vision, integrity, and ingenuity.
Working initially as a teacher at Randolph Union High School until 1974, then in campaigning and the arts as a writer and fundraiser, it is for his role as business manager, associate editor, then editor and publisher of The Bridge newspaper in Montpelier that Nat may be most remembered.
Beginning with a meeting with friend Phil Dodd in Montpelier’s Horn of the Moon Café in May 1993, the idea to create a new independent local newspaper took root, with Nat at its heart. Nat’s 25 years of dedicated service at The Bridge up until his retirement in June 2018 combined sheer determination with a commitment to in-depth analysis of the key community issues and an insightful editorial approach. Nat was honored in May 2018 in Concurrent House Resolution 401 of the State of Vermont House of Representatives.
Nat was a lifelong lover of Shakespeare, and directed several plays. In 1972 he directed a production of Twelfth Night at Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall.
Nat was married three times. He is survived by two daughters, two nephews, and several cousins. He was preceded in death by his second wife, his sister and his half siblings.
