A view from the Lakeside pier.  A view that Tom saw for many decades as he pulled big fish in on his line.  This was taken the day that we had to fish Charlie's pole from the lake that was stolen by a sheepshead.  Yes. we recovered the pole with a hook devise that Tom had created and just happened to have in his tackle box.

a photo of the 1st time Charlie and I snuck a Doo Dah poster under your front door of the cabin at Lakeside.  What fun that weekend was.  Trolling for a fishing pole that was jetted of the dock by a sheepshead (long story), and the midnight golf cart ride when the 4 of us were howling at the full moon and giggling our heads off like teenagers.

Tom's political pink flamingo at the Doo Dah Parade 2014.

I captured Tom Nagel, sitting next to his wife Nancy Heath, running his political pink flamingo on wheels in the Doo Dah Parade in 2014.

Doo Dah Parade was greeted on Neil Ave for many years by Tom Nagel's political pink flamingo on wheels.

I knew Tom through the Worthington Jammers. As a Worthington resident, I happened upon the merry band one Saturday morning around 2010 and joined up. Ever since, jamming with Tom and gang has been my favorite time of the week. I will fondly remember, "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" and "Battle Hymn of the Vegetarian", and many more that Tom sang/played with great gusto as well as his self-deprecating banjo humor!!!

Dave and I played many times with Tom.
He will be greatly missed.
We feel lucky to have gotten to know him so well.
Kathryn Allan.  Dave Fultz

My sincere condolences to Tom Nagel's loved ones and friends. I am in the Columbus Folk Music Society and jammed with Banjo Tom many times. I will always be a devoted fan of his original music... and plan to continue to sing his songs and praises!

I have not yet forgiven Tom for subjecting me to a PawPawTini, but that was a small thing... A memory that comes to mind, which pleases me every time I think of it, is a time when Tom was (briefly: I was no good) tutoring me on RC aircraft control. He sent a group message, I think, mentioning that he was in a meadow with his GPS -- which was a TomTom -- and concluded by saying there were "a lot of Toms in the meadow."

Over the fence from our friends Pam and Paul's house, the celebration formerly called Rolling Rock was an annual event whose gentle pleasures were always...a pleasure. A gentle, funny, smart man, whom it was a pleasure to know and a sadness to lose, earlier, and now.

So many memories of Tom and his shenanigans.   Pink flamingos nesting on the Hilliard property.    The periscope floating in the pond.   The loss of boomerangs to the dog he always tried to best - but was never successful.  The paw paw trees growing in my yard.    And all the silly names he came up with.    My sincere condolences to Nancy and the family.   He has left a large prints on the lives of family and friends.  Marty

My favorite memory is a warm summer day in Lakeside: Tom is scouting locations for what will become a sidewalk pickup band. We get settled in. There’s Tom on banjo, guitar, and mandolin; a teenage boy on trombone, a lady playing violin; a young woman on flute; and me on the one-string gut bucket bass.  We play and sing a couple of folk songs, and a passerby stops to take a photo  and say, “ This may be the most Lakeside thing I have ever seen.”

I’ll dip a paddle in the water for Tom and say a few words over pawpaw pancakes with fruit from trees Papa PawPaw gave me years ago. Every time I look out my back window and see those trees (much larger now), I think of Tom. His talents with his banjo are what led me to take up playing ukulele. Sierra Club meetings brought us together 40 years ago and his wit, knowledge of arcane things, and love of the outdoors made us friends. I will miss him and be thinking of Nancy and his family.

OBITUARY

Tom H. Nagel

March 9, 1946 – September 20, 2025

Schoedinger Northwest

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