PELHAM — The family of William Solberg Jr. is mourning his loss after he was stabbed to death during a fight Sunday.
"He was not a fighter," said his sister, Cheryl Hughes of Andover, Mass. "He never wanted to cause trouble and he didn't like controversy. Of course, he was my brother, but until you see it and go through it, you might not believe it. Everyone loved him, but he was his own worst enemy because he was so nice."
Scott Hanks, 49, of Salem is charged with fatally stabbing Solberg, 46, of Pelham with a sword in front of Hanks' home on Lake Shore Road in Salem. Hanks is charged with negligent homicide and first-degree assault. He is in custody at the Rockingham County jail for lack of $100,000 bail.
Hughes said her brother had been living in Pelham with his girlfriend, who was at the center of Sunday's confrontation, for a few years. Her brother did not know Hanks, Hughes said, and her family never heard of him until the stabbing.
Hanks is accused of puncturing a rear tire on Solberg's pickup truck, then plunging the 15-inch sword into Solberg's abdomen. Hughes said her brother died almost instantly.
After the fight, Hanks tossed the sword into Canobie Lake, according to a witness and police. State Fish and Game divers recovered the weapon Monday afternoon.
Hughes said her brother didn't talk much about his girlfriend, who has not been identified. The family had met her before.
"We don't want to talk to her," Hughes said. "She has been nothing but trouble."
Yesterday, Solberg's family, who hail from Winchester, Mass., was making arrangements to put him to rest.
Solberg, a Cambridge, Mass., native, moved to New Hampshire about seven years ago, according to Hughes. He loved the outdoors and bought a home on a wooded two-acre lot in Pelham. It got Solberg away from the two-family homes and compressed neighborhoods around Boston, and closer to the things he enjoyed outdoors, his sister said.
He worked as a foreman for the family construction company, M. Solberg Enterprise Co. in Winchester, along with his parents, William and Mary Solberg, two sisters, Cheryl and Betsy, and several nieces and nephews.
"We were always, always together," Hughes said. "He worked. That's what his life and his hobby was."
His father founded the business in 1972 after working as an iron worker. The company focuses on precast concrete planks and buildings. It has provided cut concrete for Fenway Park, she said. Local projects include the tunnel at North Andover High School and a skating rink at Haverhill High School.
Solberg Jr. was overseeing construction of a dormitory at Brandeis University and a senior care facility in Dedham, Mass., when he died. He had been married and divorced, but had no children, his sister said.
Among his favorite things was working with his nieces and nephews in the summer when they were home from college.
