TILTON --- Thomas Doran Mead, 76, of Philbrook Road, died Sunday, July 28, 2024, in a boating accident on Lake Winnisquam.
Tom was born December 31, 1947, in Boston, MA, to Judson and Jane (Stanley) Mead. He grew up in Bloomington, IN, and attended the Choate School in Wallingford, CT, where he took up running. He went on to study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he met his wife, Lenore. Following his freshman year he enlisted in the Army and was stationed in Korea. After discharge, he studied economics, graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Indiana University and earning a master's degree from Brown University. He worked for Allendale Insurance in RI, Cambridge Associates in MA, and ended his career as an Investment Manager and Research Director in Orinda CA, retiring from Axa-Rosenberg in 2010.
Tom and his wife moved to Tilton in 2012 and built their dream house down the road from where his maternal great-grandparents once lived. An enormous garden, berry patch, orchard, hayfield to be mowed, and driveway to be plowed justified his tractor. Tractor rides with Pop-Pop were a favorite among the grandchildren.
Tom was a founding member of the Winnisquam Watershed Network and served on its first board. In 2020 he and his wife joined Washington Commons, a co-housing group developing a community in West Sacramento, CA. Tom contributed his expertise as part of the Development, Finance, and Legal team over the last four years. He also enjoyed coding. This hobby culminated in his development of an app, Solarlunar Data, to determine the direction and length of shadows cast at any point on earth at any time past, present or future.
Early morning exercise was his routine. When his knees could no longer support running, Tom took up sculling, an activity he became passionate about. He honed his sculling technique at Craftsbury Outdoor Center’s rowing camp over the last 3 years. He was largely indifferent about golf but loved playing with his sons, preferably at the crack of dawn.
Tom was confident. He could speak to a crowd. Tom was a brilliant explainer of things, making the complex understandable, even if only for a moment. He was a voracious reader and, as such, there was seldom a word that he could not define more clearly than a dictionary. He was impatient. With his family he was patiently impatient. He rarely closed a door but always bailed out the motor boat after a rain and buttoned up the ski boat before a rain. His glare earned the moniker “the look,” though it seemed to his children that he let this muscle atrophy later in life. He rarely seemed uncomfortable. He stained everything in his orbit with coffee. After a brief period of shaking the hands of his adult sons, Tom made a point of embracing them. For this example, and for each embrace, his children are eternally grateful.
Thomas is survived by his wife Lenore (Anderson) Mead; daughter Suzanne Mead; sons Thomas A. and his wife Ursula; Andrew and his wife Laressa; brothers Judson T. and his wife Debbie, and John; and grandchildren Elizabeth, Everett, Conrad, and Anderson.
There will be no services at this time.
For those who wish, memorial donations in Thomas’s name may be made to: the Winnisquam Watershed Network, PO Box 502, Winnisquam, NH 03289 or the Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place, Berkeley, CA 94709
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services/603Cremations.com, 164 Pleasant Street, Laconia, NH is assisting the family with the arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial go to wilkinsonbeane.com.