I’m sorry to tell you that Tom Shearer of Hartstown passed away on Friday, July 11. You may have read his obituary in last week’s edition.
What I will remember most about Tom is that he was honest and a man of his word. If Tom told you something, it was true. If he promised to do something, he did it.
I asked George Hanna, Tom’s best friend, if he could give me a fuller picture of the kind of man Tom was.
George and Tom met at Fallowfield School. “We met in the first grade and were buddies ever since,” George said. They never had a fight in eighty years. As adults, George worked for Tom. Tom was the boss but he was still George’s best friend.
Tom worked hard all his life. He grew up on a farm. His dad, Warren Shearer, owned a sawmill where he and Tom worked together.
Warren also had a threshing machine he took to other farmers’ fields to thresh their grain. George remembers the Allis Chalmers tractor Warren used to haul the thresher. It had big rubber tires and the thresher had a canvas belt that threshed the grain.
After graduation, George and Tom cut trees down with a two-man chainsaw. “That was the first adventure we got into after school.”
George was the best man at Tom’s wedding and Tom was the best man in George’s wedding. Tom and Annabelle and George and Martha later owned a Laundromat in Jamestown.
Tom served in the United States Army in South Korea from 1946 until 1947.
Tom was wholeheartedly devoted to using his talents to serve God. He served as a trustee and brainstormed ways to best supervise and maintain the church and its land.
Tom built an addition on the old Fallowfield United Methodist in the 1950s. He added two rooms upstairs and a kitchen downstairs. One of the new upstairs rooms was the church’s first bathroom.
Tom drew the blueprints and oversaw the reconstruction of Fallowfield United Methodist after the 1985 tornado. He and Annabelle donated walnut tongue and groove boards that cover the ceiling. Tom cut walnut trees on his property, then dried and donated the boards.
He served on the mission board since around 1979 and helped decide which missions our church supported.
Tom built churches and medical clinics in Haiti and Paraguay for missionaries and the communities they served. In Paraguay Tom built a house for Jim and Dora Wood of New Tribes Mission.
He and Annabelle moved Tom’s mother, Pearl, into their home and took care of her until she passed away.
Tom and Annabelle, his wife of 60 years, traveled to the Holy Land, Egypt, and Europe. At his funeral, his daughters, Pam and Karen, shared that he read Newsweek and National Geographic regularly. He wanted to travel to the places he read about. In many cases, he did.
He knew Atlantic history better than anyone I know. He was the keynote speaker at the Fallowfield School Reunion in 2008. Everyone was engrossed in what he told them about the history of the railroad, former businesses, and farming in Fallowfield.
The Reverend Russ Hines started hosting men’s prayer breakfasts in the1970s. Tom faithfully attended these breakfasts. At the breakfasts one man cooked and another led devotions. They prayed together and shared their struggles and joys. It is the only men’s group in Fallowfield United Methodist. Tom valued his time with them so much that he asked these men to be his pallbearers.
Tom was a good and faithful servant of Jesus Christ. He will continue to inspire Atlantic community members to work hard and serve God.
Have a good week.
Blessings.