Thomas Vaughan

1932 - 2021

Thomas Vaughan

Appleton - Thomas Charles Vaughan was born in Appleton, Wisconsin on May 30, 1932 to Thomas Lorenzo Vaughan and Donna Anna (Herrmann) Vaughan. He arrived just as the world was experiencing the worst of the Great Depression and left from his hometown shortly after January 23 as the world neared the zenith of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tommy graduated from what is now Appleton West High School and was soon drafted into the U.S. Army as the Korean War raged. While trained as a truck driver, his high school typing class earned him a transfer to morning report clerk for the 822nd Engineering Aviation Battalion at Taegu. Although he never had a Teddy bear, in other regards, including the glasses, he was much like the beloved "Radar" of the "M*A*S*H" television show and participated in similar shenanigans.

He used the G.I. bill to earn a bachelor's degree in business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and for several years worked for what is now Sprint before returning to his alma mater for a master's degree in education. He accepted a position teaching business courses at Fox Valley Technical College. His frugality, combined with some good investment choices, allowed him to retire in his early 40s.

About this same time, he met and married Betty (Jepsen) Kolstad. She, too, was a bit odd, and the two mixed as well as water and oil, leading inevitably to an amicable divorce a few years later. She then pursued her dreams of becoming first a bartender and then a mortician.

Tommy was a voracious a reader, going through every item on every page of several newspapers daily. He clipped items that intrigued him and placed them in his wallet to be later retrieved and read aloud at family gatherings. While well-informed on almost any topic, his particular interests were history, movies of the 1930s, '40s and '50s, and the popular music from that era. While he daily listened to music from that period, no one ever heard him sing. Taking a cue from his mother's love of the Packers, he was a life-long fan, attending games in person from the 1940s through the 1980s. He could recite from memory individual player statistics, jersey numbers, college affiliations and similar information.

His quirkiness is the subject of countless family stories. He moved into the family home after his mother's death in 2009, moving many bulky items, such as filing cabinets, from his apartment several miles distant using a hand dolly over city sidewalks. He was particular about cutting the lawn and clearing the snow, yet allowed the shrubs to grow without limit. He placed trash and recyclables next to the curb in a particular way, while the inside of his residences could only be described as "unleashed chaos."

He greatly enjoyed family gatherings, often arriving early, talking continually and leaving late. Yet he had no need for such events and went weeks without human contact, seeing only postal workers and checkers at the grocery store. His handwriting - he almost always printed - had an almost machine-like regularity throughout his 88-year life. He spent long hours at the library researching various topics and then composed 10-to-20 page "newsletters" which he then sent to his brother and wife. He was an excellent driver, a skill he learned at age 12, driving without a license for his grandfather during the war. Tommy practiced transcendental meditation, which allowed him to fully function on five hours of sleep a day. A several-mile walk was a part of his daily routine until the end.

He once said, "I suppose many people would look at the life I've lived and think it was a sad and lonely one. But I have enjoyed myself greatly."

While his death had not been expected, he died at home as he wished.

He is survived by a brother, Arthur Vaughan and wife Gloria Freeland of Manhattan, Kansas; nieces Karen Ethridge (Mike McLin), Mariya Vaughan (Miriam Macedo) and Katherine Vaughan (Matt Webb); nephew Matthew Vaughan; an aunt Sue Herrmann; and many cousins and other relatives.

Wichmann Funeral Homes is assisting the family with Thomas' cremation with no services to be held.