Galen J. Bunnell

Galen J. Bunnell, 74, of Westborough, died January 24, 2026 after a hard-fought battle with cancer.

Born in 1951 in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Andrew and Ruth Bunnell, Galen was the second of four children. As a child and teenager, Galen often found refuge in the library, which ignited a love of learning that never left him. After graduating from Central High School in Tulsa, he studied for a time at Washington University in St. Louis, where he met Sally Bunnell (to whom he was married from 1972 to 2001, a marriage which gave him his three children, Colin, Erik and Benjamin). Galen enlisted in the United States Navy in 1971 and leveraged his early fascination with electronics and engineering into a role teaching Naval recruits in Tennessee. After service on the USS Nimitz, Galen returned to the United States in 1977, left the Navy and began his lifelong career in the computer industry. In 1986, Galen moved to Massachusetts with his family, and he lived here the rest of his life (despite the many, many opinions he held regarding New England weather, specifically the New England winter, which he was known to opine to be at least nine months long).

Galen was a passionate video gamer and baker, a fan of science fiction literature and British mystery TV shows, and a raconteur who enjoyed holding court for friends and family. Friends and loved ones could attest to his occasional orneriness. We saw that trait in its full splendor in his final, tenacious battle against the cancer that took his life.

Galen is survived by his partner and companion of more than twenty years, Michele Stowell; his sister Betty McDaniel, of Frisco, Texas; and sons Colin Bunnell (of Arlington), Erik Bunnell (of West Boylston), and Benjamin Bunnell (of Worcester), as well as grandchildren Eddie and Rose Bunnell, and his dear friends and partners in mischief Joe and Priscilla Desiata of Northborough. He is predeceased by siblings Sharon Norris and Gary Bunnell.

A memorial service will take place on Saturday, February 14, 2026 at 10:00 A.M. in the Pickering & Son Westborough Funeral Home, 62 West Main Street, Westborough, Massachusetts, followed by burial with military honors in Pine Grove Cemetery, Westborough. Friends, family and loved ones are invited to come share memories and celebrate his life.

Donations in his memory can be made to Common Defense, a veterans group defending democracy, at commondefense.us/donate.