Thomas Richard Blanchette

His family moved to Sudbury in the summer of 1957. He attended Sudbury Public Schools and Marion High School, he loved sports, scouting and riding horses. Tom enlisted in the US Army after high school and was assigned to the 82nd Army Airborne Division. Tom was selected to attend the US Army Preparatory School at Fort Belvoir, VA. Senator Edward Kennedy sponsored Tom for an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point in 1971 where he played Army football. He left West Point after one year and he went on to graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1975, majoring in economics and political science. He worked in Washington, DC for 2 years at the Economic Development Administration before deciding politics was not for him.

He then went to work at Sullivan Automotive selling auto parts for over 25 years. His next move saw him building houses on Martha's Vineyard for a nonprofit youth development program. He then went to work in Uganda for 2 years building communities supporting widows and orphans. Returning to the US he worked on a cattle ranch in South Carolina where he enjoyed riding horses, fulfilling a childhood dream to become a cowboy. Later in life he served as the manager of a food pantry at the Holy Trinity Church in Ridgeland, SC where he was an active congregant. For the past 5 years in the summer months he worked at the Ski Hearth Farm in Sugar Hill, NH.

He nurtured an interest in Judaism, attending the Bethlehem Hebrew Congregation in NH for the past few summers.

Tom was very generous with a big heart, he never pursued the dollar in his career but rather was much more interested in doing for others and giving everything he had to other people. He was a vibrant, enthusiastic Christian. He lived out his faith as best he could, following the words of Jesus: “Love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.”

Tom was an avid outdoorsman, and was an accomplished skier having worked in Stowe, Vt for many years. He was a technical mountain climber and once climbed to the summit of the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

He was predeceased by his parents and brother Jack and is survived by his siblings Lynn, David, Stephen, Don, Janet, Mary, Richard and Chris, numerous nieces, nephews and cousins, a dear friend Marcia Denine and his dog Willy.

He was gregarious. All who knew him marveled at his gift for gab.

A Celebration of his Life will be held on Friday, August 1st, 12-4 at The Wayside Inn, Sudbury.

In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to Church of the Holy Trinity, Margaret F. Curtis Food Pantry, 2718 Bees Creek Rd, Ridgeland, SC 29936