Thomas P. Medeiros

Thomas P. Medeiros, 40; always willing to help out

Joe Sosnosky hired Thomas P. Medeiros to work at Bradford Original Soap Works 20 years ago.

He never regretted the decision.

"He had a really bright, bubbly personality," said Sosnosky, executive vice president of the company. "He was a very caring person who would help anybody. And his work ethic was just wonderful."

In all the years that Mr. Medeiros, 40, had been employed at the company, he never missed a day of work, Sosnosky said. And because many of Mr. Medeiros's family members -- including his brother and two sisters -- also work at Bradford, he was truly part of the fabric of daily life there.

"There are people here who are crying every day when they stop and think that he is gone," Sosnosky said.

Mr. Medeiros had been a star runner in high school, Sosnosky said he always prided himself on keeping in excellent physical shape.

He could run like the wind, recalled House Speaker William J. Murphy, who went to West Warwick High School with Mr. Medeiros and was a teammate on the boys' cross-country team.

"Tommy was the best runner that ever came from West Warwick High School," Murphy said.

Mr. Medeiros broke many local and state track records, and was named Most Outstanding Athlete of West Warwick in his senior year.

Andrea Silva, one of his nieces, said he was more like a brother than an uncle. A passionate fan of the New England Patriots -- and their former quarterback Drew Bledsoe -- Mr. Medeiros was planning a trip to Buffalo, N.Y., next year just to get his name on a football helmet he had inscribed with other Pats' autographs, she said.

"If you met my uncle, you'd love him right away," she said, recalling that on a hot summer day, he used his work break to cut his father's lawn. "He'd do anything for anybody," Silva said. "There aren't enough words to describe him."

-- Barbara Polichetti, Providence Journal staff