Tom Morris died unexpectedly on May 25, Memorial Day. He was born in Burlington, Vermont on April 25, 1965, and grew up in Marblehead.
He went to the Gerry, Story, Roads, Seaside and Bell schools and graduated from Marblehead High School in 1983; later going to college at Johnson State College in Vermont before moving to Reading, Vermont, where he lived for the rest of his life. He lived in a house next to a brook where you cross a wooden footbridge to get to the house.
In Marblehead, he was a legendary rebel and daredevil — the first kid in his generation to get a motorcycle and a tattoo. He was famous for being the only kid to do swan dives off the 37 ft.-high Nelson’s Ledge at the Gloucester quarries. He organized keg parties at Brown’s Island at high tide and rowed the kegs away in a dinghy before the Stacey Clark could get there to break the parties up.
He was an accomplished carpenter, starting work with Bill MacKenzie at age 14 after school and during vacations. Most recently he was the foreman of a construction crew, building some of the most beautiful houses in Vermont.
Tom was captain of the 1982 State Champion MHS Soccer Team, known for his indefatigable leadership and hard work on the field. As a teenager, he once entered a 5-mile running race on a whim and won it, without having ever trained. He was also a great skier, having raced for Okemo and Pico mountains and continuing at Johnson State at Smuggler’s Notch.
They say that true Vermonters would rather stay in Vermont than reside in heaven, and Tom is assuredly one of those people. He loved being in the woods, stalking a buck, four wheeling or riding his snow mobile through the woods. He was a backwoodsman and accomplished horticulturist, cultivating premium cannabis for over 40 years.
Tom leaves his mother, Betsy; daughter, Nicole; brother, Peter and family; and beloved partner Marianne Lynch. He was pre-deceased by his sister Chrissy and his father Monty.
