TOM BETHELL

1936 - 2021

Obituary

Guest Book

BORN

1936

DIED

2021

TOM BETHELL Obituary

Name: Visitation for TOM BETHELL
Start: 2021-02-25T15:00:00.000Z
Location: St. Thomas Apostle Church

Published by Legacy Remembers from Feb. 21 to Feb. 23, 2021.

TOM BETHELL
Passed away peacefully on February 12, 2021, at his home in Washington, DC, from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was born July 17, 1936, in London, United Kingdom. He attended Downside Abbey School and graduated from Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in 1954, after which he served in the Royal Navy. He attended Trinity College, Oxford University, and after graduation in 1962 came to the United States. He became a journalist and author of books on New Orleans jazz, politics, and science. His long-term home was as senior editor of The American Spectator. He is survived by his wife of 24 years, Donna Fitzpatrick Bethell; his brother Richard and sisters Cecilia Barton and Magdalen Gee in England, and sister Anne Klemets of Wilton, CT. Bethell was a life-long Catholic and since 2003 attended Mass and enjoyed the coffee community at St. Mary Mother of God Church in Washington. Since the pandemic he attended Mass at St. Thomas Apostle Church in Washington, where a Solemn Requiem Mass will be offered on February 25 at 11 a.m., with visitation at 10 a.m. Burial will be on February 26 at Gate of Heaven Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Clear Creek Abbey, 5804 W Monastery Road, Hulbert, OK 74441-5698; clearcreekmonks.org.Funeral services are being provided by De Vol Funeral Home, DC.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Sign TOM BETHELL's Guest Book

Not sure what to say?

Recent Activity

January 18, 2022

David Ranson posted to the memorial.

February 26, 2021

Marilyn Seabrooks posted to the memorial.

February 25, 2021

Myron Ebell posted to the memorial.

4 Entries

David Ranson

January 18, 2022

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.

Marilyn Seabrooks

February 26, 2021

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

Myron Ebell

February 25, 2021

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.

William B. DePass, Jr.

February 21, 2021

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.