Darren Michael Garnick, an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker, journalist and writer, died on 30 August, 2024 after a 13-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 56.
A long-time resident of Amherst, NH, Darren was the beloved husband of Stacy (Grossman) Garnick, and father of Ari Samuel Garnick and Dahlia Beatrice Garnick.
Throughout his life, he enjoyed mountain hikes, obstacle/costumed theme races, Red Sox games, family road trips and especially backyard bonfires by the Garnick treehouse.
Darren wanted to be a news reporter since high school, when he started out as a sportswriter for The Chelmsford Independent. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications at the University of Massachusetts. His college education included one semester at Northern Arizona University and one semester at the Voyageur Outward Bound school, taking a Minnesota/Texas-based outdoor adventure course that included dogsledding and canoeing the Rio Grande.
After college, Darren participated in Project Otzma, an Israeli volunteer program that involved teaching Ethiopian immigrants English and math. He regarded Otzma as one of the most formative experiences of his life.
Following several years as a newspaper reporter at small weeklies and dailies, Darren wrote the “Working Stiff” business column for the Boston Herald. For more than a decade, he also wrote the “Culture Schlock” pop culture column for The Nashua Telegraph. His work also was featured in The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Slate, The Jerusalem Report, The Jerusalem Post, New Hampshire Magazine, The Hill, Runner’s World and CNN.com
Darren later transitioned from print journalism to TV/video production. At Boston-based AWARD Productions, he wrote and produced several political documentaries for PBS. His work on the aviation history film, “Beyond Kitty Hawk” earned him and his colleagues a 2004 Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Documentary Program.”
He most recently worked as the Content Director for PTC/Onshape, writing about the latest technologies in product design and manufacturing.
Darren was known for his giving spirit. For many years, he and his family donned costumes and raised money for Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD)’s annual superhero charity run. He also founded Cards4theDR, a tzedakah initiative dedicated to supplying Dominican youth baseball players with the packs of baseball cards he loved to tear open as a kid.
In addition to his wife and children, Darren is survived by his parents, Paul and Barbara Garnick of Chelmsford, MA.; a brother and sister-in-law, Kevin and Kelly Garnick of Hudson, NH; a sister and brother-in-law, Wendy and David Traverse, of Dunstable, MA; and several nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations to UMass Amherst Hillel, Best Buddies NH, Friends of the IDF, or the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute would be appreciated.
Funeral services will be on 4 September, 2024 at Temple Beth Abraham, Nashua, NH at 10:30. Burial to follow.
The Davis Funeral Home, 1 Lock St., Nashua, NH 03064, is overseeing the arrangements. An online guestbook is available at www.davisfuneralhomenh.com. (603) 883-3401 “ONE MEMORY LIGHTS ANOTHER”.