Thomas Leslie Sherman

2/4/41- 8/28/25

Born in Portland, Oregon to Dorothy Frank Sherman and Leslie Sherman, Tom grew up in Portland and was one of three from that state to join our class in the Fall of 1958. Tom Triplett, a fellow graduate of Lincoln High School, said that the two of them were amongst a group of five students, all Tom’s, selected for enrollment in Ford Foundation supported classes for gifted students in math, physics and English. The two also won American Field Service scholarships in their junior year, Triplett going to Germany and Sherman to England. On the long trip over and back with 718 others, they pledged that if Yale accepted them they would enroll. Y’62’s Sam Back, Mike Greeley and Kent Hughes were also part of that pledging group on the ship.

Tom roomed with Sam Back and Don Metz in Dwight Hall and moved with them and Jan Tillisch to Branford. Don remembers Tom: “as a good friend and serious student.” Subsequently, as his goal was medical school, he moved so as to have fellow pre-meds as roommates. Tom’s focus on academics was reflected by his selection as a Scholar of the House. He was twice on the Dean’s list and earned Ranking Scholar at the end of freshman year. Not all nose-to-the-grindstone, Tom was engaged with Alpha Phi Omega and Phi Gamma Delta.

However, as Triplett recounts: “he spent his junior year abroad in Paris at the Institute des Etudes Politique on the Sweetbriar program, which was really transformative for him. He grew a beard he basically never shaved off.” Susan, Tom’s younger sister, remembers that the family “went to Europe to visit Tom during his junior year abroad. When Tom walked into our hotel room, I was shocked as he was no longer clean-shaven, but had a beard. I remember saying or thinking to myself you sound like Tom but you don’t look a thing like him. I don’t remember anything else about that visit.” He decided not to go to medical school and pursued literature instead, so he deferred Columbia Medical school to get his MA English Literature at Stanford…” Despite never finishing his Ph.D., Tom’s initial academic appointments were at Antioch and Swarthmore.

But Tom’s interests had changed to photography, and in 1973 he became a professional photographer. His business, “Words and Pictures,” provided outlets for him to continue to teach and write. The business expanded eventually into communications and development services to non-profits. Tom’s interest in teaching remained with him for the rest of his life.

Educated by the Free Speech movement while at Stanford, Tom applied for Conscientious Objector status. He was active with the Bread & Roses Community Fund, the leading funder of grassroots organizing for racial, social, and economic justice in the Philadelphia region during his time in that area. In conjunction with those experiences, he developed an interest in healthy eating and food sustainability; he volunteered for Manna for numerous years. Not surprisingly, Tom also had an appreciation of a broad range of music. Fueled by his initial experiences from an Eagle Scout trip to Japan, he greatly appreciated and sought out travel as a way to better understand other cultures and outlooks on life. Annual visits to the Oregon coast renewed him. His obituary particularly noted that “the life of the mind was vital and energizing for him, typically shared with family and friends.”

While at Stanford, Tom met Dorothy Louise Hunt and they were married in 1966. A daughter, Rachel, was born in 1970 and became a professor, which included a four-year stint at Yale. Dorothy and Tom divorced in 1974; she and Rachel have out-lived Tom. In 1981, he met Nancy Middlebrook through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and they married a few years later. Nancy has survived Tom, as have Tom’s brother Douglas and sister Sue Sherman, both living in Oregon.

— John D. Hatch III