Meet Tom Blanchette - Came for the music and stayed

A profile by Annie Hoyer

Tom Blanchette has been a summer presence at BHC for quite a while. He joins in Shabbat services, Torah study, and our many social events. His story has many chapters, including the one that brought him to BHC.

Tom was raised in Sudbury, MA, the third of nine children. He attended Merrimack College for one year, but he just wasn’t inspired. So instead of returning, he volunteered for the Army, where he became part of the Airborne Infantry. He was never sent to Vietnam.

            The Army was impressed with Tom; he rose to the rank of staff sergeant in nine months, an advancement that usually takes years. The Army sent him to West Point. There he struggled with calculus, a requirement to continue at the military academy. He left West Point when his commitment to the Army was up, recognizing that being a military officer was not for him.

            Tom graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in economics and political science and went to work the Economic Development Administration (EDA). “It was 1973-74,” Tom recalled, “a fascinating time to be in D.C.” He attended meetings with Senate leaders. He had a gallery pass to sit in on Senate proceedings, thanks to president Richard Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew, who’d been a member of the EDA. After a few years, though, Tom decided working his way up the DC bureaucracy was not the right path for him.

Leaving government, he became a salesman for automotive aftermarket (items you buy at an auto parts store). He started out in New England, but his territory expanded over his 10 years in sales, and he eventually moved Ohio. Tom was successful at his job, and was rewarded with new Cadillac when, for the 3rd year in a row, he was the top producer. “I felt a little out of place; here I am a guy in my late 20s driving a Cadillac,” he admitted. “It should’ve been a sports car, but the truth is the Caddy was comfortable for all the traveling I did.”  

Tom spends summers building Ski Tip Farm barns

Atop one of his “barns in process”

            Cadillac notwithstanding, he eventually decided to move on. He became a contractor, building houses on Martha’s Vineyard for a non-profit youth development program. “I lived on the Vineyard for 15 years, the longest I’ve been in one place.” But then…

            “I’d always wanted to go to Africa,” he told me, so when he had an opportunity to use his contracting skills in Uganda, Africa, he grabbed it. He worked for Watoto (which means ‘children’ in Swahili), a charity that was created in response to Idi Amin’s devastation of Ugandan culture.

Watoto’s goal was to create communities for widows and orphans. They first built nine small houses, arranged in a circle, which was the culture’s norm. Altogether, the community grew to 25 to 30 circles of homes. Once people had homes, the group built them a school, a church, and a chance to rebuild their lives.

            “I spent two years in Africa and I never saw a lion,” Tom said, laughing. “I was working too hard.”    

Unfortunately, charities began to retrench following the fallout from the 2009 economic implosion, and Tom, of course, needed to support himself. He returned to the States, this time to South Carolina where a friend wanted his help with a cattle ranch he owned. Thus, Tom joked, “I fulfilled a lifelong dream of being a cowboy.” Seven years ago, his brother and an old friend coaxed him to come to New Hampshire to help renovate Ski Tip Farm in Franconia, which his the friend had purchased. He still spends the winters in South Carolina.

Tom was raised a Catholic, and found BHC by accident. During a long bike ride (still his major hobby), he happened on the BHC sign on Main Street. He had always been curious about Judaism, so he showed up on a Friday to discover a campfire out back, with members singing songs and later going into the sanctuary for a service.

He’s been coming to BHC ever since. “I love learning about the religion,” he said. “The people in this congregation have been wonderful to me.” 

This profile is part of an occasional series of interviews with BHC community members.