Tom Sherwood

1937 - 2019

Father, husband, teacher and friend Tom Sherwood, 81, died on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019, at the Hospice House in Bellingham, WA. He was born on Oct. 13, 1937, in Kansas City, MO, son of Chester and Bertha (McClain) Sherwood. Surviving family include his wife, Dorothy; brother, Larry; son Talley and family: his wife, Lin Min and children Taili and Kaila; and son Jud and his partner Monique Brewer. Tom grew up on a Missouri farm that could not contain him. He rode his horse daily and loved the animals, but his interests soon drew Tom to a life of art, literature, religion and other intellectual pursuits. In 1958, Tom earned a BA in English Literature from William Jewell College and an MA in theological literary criticism from the University of Chicago in 1961. While there, he found another lifelong love, Dorothy Elofson, whom he married in 1960. Never one to sit idly by, Tom honed his skills and knowledge around the world. He studied art and art history at Mexico City College, returned to Chicago to study theology and aesthetics and while on leave in Germany translated a work of philosopher Frederick Schleiermacher. Tom shared his talent as an artist-in-residence at Bensalem College of Fordham University and was an assistant professor of aesthetics, art history and the philosophy of religion at Fairhaven College of Western Washington University 1970-77. He was an exchange professor at the Raymond College of the University of the Pacific in California and returned to WWU to teach drawing 1975-1982. Tom also was an artist-in-residence at Deep Springs College in California and taught at universities in Chengdu, China and Berea College in Kentucky. At the invitation by friend and artist John Sisko, he lectured at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. Tom created numerous woodblock, lithograph, and etching prints as well as drawings in ink, chalk, graphite and silverpoint. He and his sketchpad were constant fixtures at jazz concerts hosted by his son, Jud. His sculpture, “The Assistants,” a work Tom started in the early 1980s as a lighting study for a painting, was awarded a prize in 1985 by the National Sculpture Society in New York City. He went on to master the medieval art of painting with egg tempera and gilding his works with gold leaf. With the patronage of Ron Binns, a Toronto art collector, he was able to continue his artistic pursuits. He was a part of the Bellingham art community and close friends were painters such as Tom Wood, John Cole and Susan Bennerstrom. In 2015, the Whatcom Museum presented his life’s work in an exhibition titled Tom Sherwood: A Golden Perspective. If he was not making visual art, he was baking apple pies and yard butlering for friends, or discussing, reading, writing essays, critiques, sonnets, and penning poignant responses to emails. Tom was detailed and exacting in his work, a methodical craftsman in everything he did. Tom was ever generous with his time, even though it was the only commodity in his life he felt he was lacking. “I should’ve gotten more work done,” he said. “That was my problem: I liked it all.” But for those who knew him, it was family and friends that topped any of his other creations. And he patiently took the time to enrich their lives, nurse the wounds of failure and rejoice in their accomplishments. A public memorial will be held Sunday June 23rd at Samson Estates Winery (1861 Van Dyk Road, Everson) from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.