Thomas Arthur 1930-2012
Thomas Arthur passed away on June 5, 2012. Tom lived most of his full life in Glencoe, Illinois. His parents, John W. Arthur and Hazel Welsh Arthur moved with him from Chicago to Glencoe in 1932.
Tom attended the Glencoe schools, New Trier High School, Hamilton College and Northwestern Law School. At Hamilton College he was a member of Sigma Phi, the tennis and squash teams. He majored in history and political science. His favorite professor and mentor was Edgar B. "Digger" Graves, Chairman of the history department. He attended most of the Hamilton College reunions until 2012.
He was drafted into the Army in 1952 immediately following graduating from Hamilton. After basic training and armored leadership school at Fort Knox he went to Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He served with the 61st Field Artillery in Hokkaido, Japan for 18 months where he was a forward observer, directing fire for 105 howitzers. He was a recon and survey officer and battery exec.
Tom played tennis on the Corps tennis team, attended mountain climbing school and managed the ski team. Tom was class of '58 at Northwestern Law School. He was a member and magister of Phi Delta Phi and was a member of the Law School's Board of Governors.
During a trip to Europe between his first and second year of law school he met Jane Thompson, Winfield Kansas. They were married September 15, 1956. Their first daughter, Lisa, arrived one year latter, just before his last year of law school. Julia was born two years later.
Tom was with the law firm of Gardner Carton & Douglas, now Drinker Biddle & Reath for 40 years. At Gardner Carton & Douglas he had a general corporate practice, did tax exempt bond financings, private placements and public offerings. He represented underwriters in hospital bond financings and did Blue Sky work. He was active in the recruitment of lawyers and served on the management committee.
His first mentor was Ray Garret Jr. who went on the become chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission. Tom wrote Corporate Bond Financing, with updates, for BNA and edited and wrote parts of the firm's history: Chronicles of Gardner Carton & Douglas: Since 1910.
Those fortunate years supported a life filled with many interests. He held major positions at the Glencoe Union Church, Glencoe, Illinois, Skokie Country Club, Glencoe and the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago and on the board of the national association. He was made an Honorary Member of the Chicago Medical Society and was given the Lung Association's Herbert DeYoung Medal and the James H. Douglas Award for Community Service.
Tom played tennis, golf, squash, platform tennis and bridge. He enjoyed golf, bridge and writing up until a short time before his death. In 2010 while undergoing chemo therapy for pancreas cancer he shot his age, got a hole in one and won a bridge event all in the same week. He had many years of making things: paintings, sculptures, silver jewelry, carved and painted songbirds, Windsor chairs and hundreds of around-the-house improvements.
In 1968 Tom began creating hard edge minimalist paintings as the need arose at a specific location at home; he also did some watercolors. In 1999 he started making silver jewelry first by the lost wax method at a New Trier Extension evening class and in a studio in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, then by fabrication at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, North Carolina and the Suburban Fine Arts Center in Highland Park, Illinois.
For the last 12 years of his life Tom made dozens of terra-cotta portrait busts at the North Shore Senior Center, Northfield, Illinois. Tom and Jane often combined world travels with hikes such as: Popocatepetl (17,350 ft.) in Mexico, Kilimanjaro (19,400 ft.) in Tanzania, 15 or more hikes in the Grand Canyon and 10 years of Rocky Mountain hikes.
With retirement Tom added a new interest writing fiction! Destiny in the Land of the Morning Calm, a Korean War Novel was published in 2010. At the time of his death he was working on another novel set in 13th century France and England. In 2000 he and Jane compiled, annotated and illustrated 100 of his favorite poems and sayings. The unpublished book is Ashes & Sparks. Another unpublished book is: When I Was Very Young & Other Stories; it included information and photos of his ancestors.
For the last 10 years of his life, Tom and Jane wintered at The Lakes Country Club, Palm Desert, California. In 2011 they sold their Glencoe home of 50 years and moved to a larger house at the Lakes where there was space for his large paintings, sculptures, their books and other collections.
He is survived by Jane, his wife of 56 years, daughter, Lisa Nichols (John James III deceased) and her daughter, Jillian, and his other daughter, Colonel (retired) Julia Arthur (Thomas Paige).
A memorial service was held at The Lakes Country Club on June 16, 2012 and on August 4 at 3:00, a service and burial will take place at the Glencoe Union Church, Glencoe, Illinois. In lieu of flowers please consider making a small donation in honor of Tom to the North Shore Senior Center, 161 Northfield Rd, Northfield IL 60093 or at their website www.nssc.org