Toivo R. Rannikko

Toivo Raymond Rannikko, 87, passed away on April 28, 2022.

He was the son of Toivo Rannikko and Terttu (Kauppinen) Rannikko of Gardner and Nahant, MA.

Toivo was a graduate of Templeton High School.  While growing up his toys were old motors and disgarded radios.  While still in high school he taught himself morse code and received his amateur radio license in Boston.

At only 17 years old he joined the Navy.  In the Navy he attended sonar school and electronics school.  He served on several different destroyers in both the Mediterranean and the Pacific.  Notably he was on a destroyer in the Bay of Tonkin during the Vietnam War.  After twelve years of service he left the Navy.

After his service in the Navy he went to work for Harvard University's accelerator laboratory for seven years and later he worked at MIT's lab for seventeen years.  After retirement he returned to Gardner where he continued his life long interest in stamp collecting.

Toivo was predeceased by this parents, his younger sister Ruth (Rannikko) Hicks and her husband Norman Hicks, and his brother-in-law Joseph Whittaker.  

He is survived by his older sister Elaine (Rannikko) Whittaker of Delhi, NY.  He is also survived by three nephews and one niece, Thomas and Sandy Whittaker, Eric and Kathy Whittaker, Edward and Tina Whittaker, and Nancy and Thomas Smith in addition to four great nephews, two great nieces, five great-great nephews, and four great-great nieces.

Internment will be at the Wildwood Cemetery in Gardner, MA on Friday, August 4, 2023 at 1:00pm with a service conducted by Pastor David Bodanza from the Mission of Grace Church and under the arrangements of the Mack Family Funeral Homes.