Some may remember reading posts on the history of the Fay Estate, shared by TomO. His posts were sometimes shared as Thomas Osborne. A couple months ago, our dear friend Thomas passed away from an illness. Thomas was raised in the Fay Estate, and had been inspired by the history of the area and the environmental importance of the woods. He was educated as an historian and was employed at Salem State University as the university's first sustainable manager. He contributed in helping search through history to save these woods for future generations. It is a coincidence the hills at the north end of Spring Pond are named Osborne Hills, in that, the gift of helping save these surrounding woodlands was important to Thomas to gift to many, as he would have liked his message (as shared in different photos) to say please "SAVE SPRING POND WOODS".
From Tom's rememberance:
http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Thomas-Osborne&lc=7209&pid=160041320&mid=5247778
September 24, 2012
Thomas G. Osborne
Magnolia — Thomas Osborne, 50, of Magnolia, passed away Saturday at the Kaplan Family Hospice House in Danvers after a brief illness with cancer.
Born in Lynn, he was the son of Martha (McGovern) Osborne and the late Richard Osborne. He was raised in Lynn and graduated from Lynn English High School and Salem State with a degree in History.
Tom was employed at Salem State University for 25 years, in the past seven years as the University’s first Sustainability Manager. Tom’s responsibility was to ensure the University optimized an earth friendly profile by meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. He accomplished this in many forms by monitoring the health of the natural salt marsh grasses, grant writing, tracking green house gases to disposal or donations of materials from construction projects.
In contrast to his responsibilities for the future, his passion was with the past. He participated in many of SSU’s Dr. Baker’s archaeological digs and loved all aspects from excavations to cataloging and processing artifacts. Tom enjoyed researching the history of Lynn, especially the Fay Estate. Tom loved gardening with indigenous plants and fishing.
In addition to his mother Martha, Tom is survived by his sisters, Ellen Corsetti and her husband Gary of Magnolia and Karin Ruck and her husband Jeff of Boxford and his sister-in-law, Joanne Osborne of Marblehead. He is also survived by nephews, Michael and Timothy Corsetti, Colby Leclerc and Max Ruck and nieces, Kelly Osborne and Sedona Ruck. He was predeceased by his brother, Richard Osborne.
Thomas will be remembered. These are links to some of his posts:
http://www.springpondwoods.com/#uds-search-results
http://www.springpondwoods.com/2010/08/benjamin-w-crowninshield-speaks-from.html
http://www.springpondwoods.com/2010/09/fays-speak-from-their-grave.html
