CONCORD - An expanded search is under way today as rescue teams continue to look for Hugh Armstrong, 72, of Clayton, N.C., missing since he left for a walk from Hawthorne Village in Rumney about 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

About 60 searchers are looking for Armstrong, including New Hampshire Fish and Game conservation officers, state police, local fire department personnel and two canine search teams. The American Red Cross is on hand providing food and comfort to the searchers.

The search continues to focus on the area of Stinson Lake. Searchers looked all day Thursday for Armstrong and dog teams worked into the night without finding him.

Armstrong is 5-foot-4 and weighs 175 pounds. He has brown-gray hair, gray eyes, and wears glasses. He is thought to be wearing a white Red Sox hat, a red or blue T-shirt and shorts.

Fish and Game staff have renewed their call for the public’s help in locating the missing man. Anyone who has seen Armstrong or has any information about his whereabouts is asked to call State Police Troop F at (603) 846-3333.

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Full text of earlier article continues below.

RUMNEY — More than 50 searchers were in the woods, water and air around Stinson Lake, Thursday searching for a man missing since early Wednesday morning.

Hugh Armstrong, 72, of Clayton, N.C., left a house his family was renting at Hawthorne Village for a 5.2 mile loop walk around the lake, on primarily on dirt roads. He left the house around 6 a.m. Wednesday and was expected back by 9 a.m., said Fish and Game Lt. Jim Kneeland.

When Armstrong did not return, Kneeland said members of the family began driving around the lake but could not find him. They called state police around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, which prompted a search that went on until around 2 a.m. Thursday.

An intensified search resumed around dawn and Kneeland said weather conditions during the morning were good for both search and survival.

Members of Armstrong's family, here on vacation, said they were keeping hope.

“We're letting professionals do their job,” said one man, who identified himself only as a family member.

Kneeland said Armstrong left the house in good health.

“It was getting close to the end of their vacation and he had wanted to go for a walk around the lake before he left,” Kneeland said.

There have been no confirmed sightings of Armstrong.

A reverse 9-1-1 call that include a physical description went out Thursday morning to Rumney residents, explaining they were looking for Armstrong.

He is described as 5 feet 4 inches tall wearing glasses, possibly with clip on sunglasses, a white Red Sox baseball hat, shorts and New Balance sneakers. He did not have a cell phone.

Connie Hughes and Michelle Desmaris, who live on Stinson Lake in the summer, said they were extremely worried for the man, who they thought they had seen earlier in the week.

“Stinson casts such a deep spell,” said Desmaris, “It's not too hard to get lost.”

Out on the Doe Town Road, which runs through deep woods along the back side of the lake, state police and a bloodhound were scouring the road, looking down steep cutaways and drainage culverts. There was a chance Armstrong could have been struck by a car or had a medical incident and that he was still in the area.

Another search was underway from Hawthorne Village in all directions because it was the last place he was seen.

Every available conservation officer from Fish and Game, State Police Troop F, the Grafton County Sheriff's Department and the Rumney Fast Squad, along with Plymouth Campton, Hebron, and Thornton fire department personnel were also helping out on foot, all terrain vehicle, in boats and in the air.

Pemi Valley Search and Rescue squad was scouring trails, New England K-9 Search and Rescue had dogs out and the National Guard was expected with their helicopter, weather permitting. Fish and Game also had a boat out in the lake searching the shoreline.

The weather Thursday was overcast and in the high 60s by the lake, making for good weather conditions for searchers.

Reidun Lewis was handing out free coffee to searchers from her Stinson Lake Store property and said she had met with the two daughters. She noted the search had intensified Thursday.

Armstrong is not familiar with this part of New Hampshire. The family has vacationed before in the Granite State but not in the Rumney area. He is here with his wife and their two daughters and their family, totaling about 11 family members.

Kneeland said it is a particularly close-knit family and they are “having a hard time right now.”

Donna Larson of New England K-9 Search and Rescue said about six dogs and 10 handlers were headed into the woods to look for Armstrong around 5 p.m. Thursday and would work through the night, regardless of the weather, which was expected to turn wet.

The team had been there the night before.

“It's been scoured,” she said of the immediate area in which Armstrong was expected to be walking.

Today, the search is expected to be expanded further away from the immediate area.

Those with any information are asked to call state police at 846-3333.

- by Paula Tracy, New Hampshire Union Leader

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Paula Tracy may be reached at ptracy@unionleader.com.