My oldest brother, Tom Rich, WHS ’54, died April 13, 2016, in a Veterans Administration hospice in Salisbury, North Carolina. The cause was esophageal cancer. My brother Bill, WHS ’56, and I spent several days with him there in late March. The hospice and the medical and support personnel at the hospice were first rate and totally inconsistent with what one would have expected from recent political and media criticism of the Veterans Administration.

Tom was always a promoter and a hustler—in the best sense. When he was in grade school, he had two paper routes: delivering the Argus Leader in the evenings and the Minneapolis Tribune on Sundays. In high school, among other jobs, he set pins at the YMCA bowling alley in the winter and caddied at the Minnehaha Country Club in the summer. He was always working. And, as you surely can attest to, he didn’t let work interfere with his active social life, whether it was promoting a concert, coordinating the homecoming festivities and fire, or chasing girls.

Tom attended the University of South Dakota where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Following his sophomore year he was selected as a guide at the U.S. Pavilion at the Brussels Worlds Fair, where he met Agnes Bonacio, whom he later married and who predeceased him. He enlisted in the Army, and served in Japan with the Army Security Agency, the predecessor of the National Security Agency. I’m not sure what his position was with the Agency, but when I was in Japan with the Marines in 1962, I hooked up with one of his girlfriends so I’m pretty sure that it was not all work and no play.

Around 1959, Tom moved to New York City, married Agnes and bought a four apartment brownstone in the East Village, which they rehabbed and lived in for many years. He held a number of jobs in Manhattan and ultimately retired from IBM. He always spoke of spending his “golden years” in Belize or some Caribbean island, but made it only as far as Salisbury.

Carolina Cremation of Salisbury and Charlotte is serving the Rich family. Online condolences may be made at www.carolinacremation.com.