Thomas Gosnell

GOSNELL--Thomas Hale Gosnell, of Webster, beloved husband of Georgia Potter Gosnell, passed away at his home in Webster, NY, on April 27, 2009, in his 89th year. He graduated from The Peddie School in 1938 and entered Yale University as a member of the class of '42. In August 1940, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve and in September 1941 was sent to the South Pacific, where he participated in amphibious landings as boat group commander or Beachmaster at Guadalcanal, Rendova, Munda (where he was wounded in action), New Georgia and Bougainville. He was navigator of the U.S.S. President Adams during the invasion of Guam and became Executive Officer of the U.S.S. Alcyon. He left the Navy in 1945 at the age of 25 as a Lieutenant Commander, having been awarded the Bronze Star, with which he was entitled to wear four Combat Engagement Stars, and a Purple Heart. After the war, Mr. Gosnell resumed his studies at Yale and graduated with a B.A. He then returned to Rochester and joined The Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, which had been co-founded by his great-grandfather and became one of the largest publishers of legal and professional materials in the U.S. He served as President and CEO of this company from 1960 until its sale to the International Thomson Organization, Ltd., in 1989. Mr. Gosnell was an active leader and supporter of numerous civic and educational institutions. He served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Rochester Institute of Technology, which had been co-founded in 1885 by his great-grandfather, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1996. He also served on the boards of the Allendale Columbia School, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Strong Memorial Hospital, Nantucket Cottage Hospital and United Way of Rochester. Mr. Gosnell was known for his support of many initiatives to improve downtown Rochester, including the return of the famous copper statue of the winged-footed Mercury. A strong believer in land conservation, Mr. Gosnell was a benefactor of and served on the board of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. In February 2006, he gave the "Big Woods," a 68- acre first-growth forest of specimen trees along Lake Ontario in Webster, to the Town of Webster, protected by a conservation easement insuring that oak, hickory, black cherry and hemlock trees, some of which are 350 years old, will be protected for future generations. Mr. Gosnell was an avid yachtsman and sailed his ocean-going ketch Timoneer several times around Cape Horn and to the South Pacific, Alaska, the Canadian Maritimes, the Baltic and the Mediterranean, as well as the Caribbean. His high-performance sloop Sleighride is seen principally at Nantucket and in New England waters. His philanthropy has been felt in Rochester, Nantucket and Boca Grande, and all who met him remember his salutation, "Happy Day." He is survived by three children, Georgia Gosnell Travers of Princeton, NJ, Arthur A. Gosnell of Stamford, CT, and Elizabeth Gosnell Miller of New York, NY, and eleven grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son Thomas C. Gosnell, in whose memory the family established the Tucker Gosnell Center for Gastrointestinal Cancers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Gosnell Hall of the Nantucket Whaling Museum. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend a memorial service at the Third Presbyterian Church, 4 Meigs St., Rochester, NY, on Saturday, May 1, 2009, at 11am. M. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the Gosnell Boathouse Fund, Rochester Institute of Technology, Office of Development, 16 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623.