TOM BETHELL

I have only found out today that Tom passed in Feb. 2021. We first met in 1958 when we were appointed to teach in a private "prep" (primary) boarding school in England before going up to University (He to oxford, I to Cambridge). In those days he was exploring Ouspensky: Tom always had a roving mind. Over the years we exchanged letters, since I also left England for the USA and pursued an academic career here. We corresponded intermittently: my last email exchange was in 2017. Although we pursued parallel faith paths, I always respected his sharp eye for the weaknesses in his opponents' arguments. He was also an honest man, and a self-reflective one, and I am pleased to think of myself as having been a friend. To Donna, whom I have never met, I offer condolences
: my own dear Penny passed on March 3, 2021 after 31 years of happy marriage and I too am coping with grief. May blessings be on you and Tom and may prayer lead us all to a fuller understanding of God's purpose in our lives.

I met Mr. Bethell, or Tom as he preferred, in 2019 when I became a part of his in-home care team. We talked through the night well into dawn before he drifted off to sleep. The conversation was most delightful and filled with discussions regarding his writings, especially the books he had authored, his love for wife Donna, and listening to his jazz, the music gender he most favored. It was during that intimidate 12 hour conversation, that I realized that I was in the presence of a great man, whose contributions to humanity span generations. Although, well into his twilight years, Tom still had much to say and I was most pleased to have been the listening ear in the room. How fortune, I feel to have made such a connection.
My prayers are with you Donna.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper,
et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Requiem aeternam
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Requiescatant in pace.
Amen.
Marilyn Seabrooks, Washington, DC

Dear Donna, Please accept my sincere condolences on Tom's death. I regret that I am unable to attend his funeral. With much sympathy, Myron Ebell.

Tom Bethell came to Woodberry Forest School in the woods of Virginia in 1962 and occupied a tiny apartment on the second floor of Turner Hall, a combination dormitory and classroom building. My dorm room was right next to his apartment. I can take or leave most jazz, but Tom LOVED jazz and his obit and the articles written about him testify to that fact. I never had him for a class but he was always hard to know, aloof, but he was the master and I was the student. I was 15 so he would have been 26--not a big difference now but then it was cavernous. Years later I spotted an article or ad in some conservative publication about his book on property rights and knew Bethell with two "l's" had to be Tom. I bought his book, which is quite impressive and insightful. I wrote to him and was stunned to receive his reply almost by return mail. We talked once on the phone for quite a long time. I never realized he was a political conservative. We could have had a great time together. Sadly, I have to admit I did not keep up with him after that though I had every intention of doing so. I am genuinely saddened to learn of his death and the loss of yet another exceptionally bright conservative. I am grateful for my contact with him and only wish I had known him better.