Thomas Duncan Sharples

(March 26, 1942—April 7, 2022)

Thomas D. Sharples, endodontist, master fly fisherman, and world-ranked master’s track and field pole vaulter, passed away peacefully on April 7th in Falmouth, Maine. He had just turned 80 years old. He had Parkinson’s disease.

Born in New Hampton, Iowa, to Thomas A. and Ruth Ann (Turner) Sharples, Tom spent his early life in Hawthorne, California. His mother brought Tom, and his younger brother, Douglas Paul (born in 1945), to southern California while his father was serving as a naval officer in the Japanese Theater of World War II. In 1946, the family returned to Clinton, Iowa, on the banks of the Mississippi River, where his father taught high school government and coached basketball. In 1954, his father took a high school teaching post in Atlantic, Iowa, about 70 miles west of Omaha. There the family bought a plot of farmland near Griswold, the hometown of their paternal grandmother, Dora Prather Turner.

Eventually, his father built a new family home from a Sears & Roebuck kit, and farmed wheat and corn. Through their adolescence years, Tom and Doug helped build the house and farm the fields. In his teen years, Tom commuted to Atlantic High School with his father and was a student in one of his classes. Tom played piano—his favorite was “Fur Elise” by Beethoven—and excelled at sports. By his senior year he was a champion pole vaulter (using a metal pole), and captain of the 1960 champion basketball team.

Tom attended Simpson College, then transferred to the University of Iowa to study dentistry. He graduated in 1967 with his DDS, and MS as an endodontist, i.e. a root canal specialist. It was that same year that the American Dental Society approved endodontics as a specialty, making Tom and his 49 classmates—all men—one of the first accredited endodontic specialist graduate classes in the country. During his studies, Tom married Carole Hansen and after his graduation the couple moved to Sacramento, California, where Tom set up his practice. He was the first endodontic specialist in northern California.

Over the course of the next 30 years, Tom practiced his profession while the couple raised their two children, Jennifer (born in 1971) and Sarah (born in 1973). Sarah would go on to become a dentist like her father, while Jennifer became a psychologist. Tom’s love for the outdoors grew. He and his best friend, Maynard Hansen, Carole’s father, spent their free time flyfishing the rivers and lakes throughout the West. His passion for fly fishing led to his presidency, in 1987, of the Sacramento-based California Fly Fishers Unlimited. He had another outlet for his passion: Tom became an avid collector of flyfishing art and books. In total, his catalogued library of nearly 1,500 books included many signed first editions such as “Matching the Hatch” by Ernie Schwiebert and “An Outdoor Journal,” by Jimmy Carter. In 2000, Tom was inducted into the prestigious Anglers’ Club of New York. In 2003 Tom took a life-long dream trip to Patagonia to fly fish with Ernie.

In 1999, after his divorce, Tom continued his practice and took up pole vaulting again. This time he had to learn to bend a fiberglass pole. In addition, he added West Coast Swing dancing to his interests and at one dance lesson, he met Patricia (Pat) Panaia who had recently transferred to California for her work with a veterinary diagnostics company named IDEXX. The two quickly became friends and had much in common, including an interest in sports, the environment, animal welfare, medicine, business, art, and travel. In 2005, after what Tom estimated to be approximately 30,000 root canals, he retired from his practice and the couple married in a small ceremony on a hillside overlooking San Francisco Bay. That year he also participated in the Master’s Indoor Track & Field event for pole vaulting and placed 5th in the USA for his age group, setting a personal record of 2.75 meters, or little over 9 feet.

In 2006, the couple moved to Amsterdam for Pat’s work with IDEXX. For the next three years Tom and Pat explored the Netherlands and traveled to more than 10 countries. At a safari in South Africa they stayed in grass-thatched huts and encountered elephants at night, a baboon turf war, and family of warthogs scrambling out of their burrow to escape the human sightseers. Tom also pursued pole vaulting with a local Dutch club. The couple learned that the sport has origins in the Netherlands where vaulting with a pole was practical way to leap over marshes and canals. In 2008, Tom entered the world Master’s Track & Field pole vaulting event in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and earned a medal.

Upon returning to Maine from the Netherlands in 2009, Tom and Pat began exploring the Maine coast in their kayaks and their Zodiac boat. Their interests gravitated toward environmental concerns, especially related to the Gulf of Maine which is a unique body of water that is warming faster than the rest of the ocean.

At this time, both Tom and Pat noticed that Tom was having increased difficulty recalling words. He eventually went to a neurologist who diagnosed potential Alzheimer’s disease. However, as the years passed, and Pat researched and observed his symptoms, it was clear that Tom had Parkinson’s. Early in their relationship, Tom had lost his sense of smell (now, a very well-known indicator) and had stiffness in his movements. Tom and Pat had discussed extensively options depending on how things progressed. In 2015 Tom moved into an apartment at Legacy Memory Care in Falmouth, Maine.

For the next seven years, Pat visited Tom every day except when she was traveling. Music, dancing, working with tools, field trips and sharing about their day became the daily routine. Tom also welcomed in caregivers who helped him with his daily activities. There is no cure for Parkinson’s, but thanks to the support of his incredible and dedicated caregivers, including Frankie Taylor, Nicole Rawding, Dillon Fowler, and especially Ashley Paradis and Liza Talbot, and the compassionate and professional staff at Legacy, including Tim Fisk, Neverly Namutow Ruda, and especially Sharon Marks, Tom lived out his days well cared for, engaged, and loved.

Tom is survived by Pat, his daughters Jennifer Sharples and Sarah Barber, and his grandson Ethan Barber. After a memorial celebration of Tom’s life in Maine, Tom will be buried in Griswold, Iowa, next to his mother and father, his infant brother David who died before he was born, and his brother Doug, who died in 2021. Instead of flowers, donations in Tom’s name can be made to The Gulf of Maine Research Institute, 350 Commercial Street, Portland, Maine 04101.