Thomas Kinnard Liversidge

KENNEBUNK — Thomas Kinnard Liversidge, of Kennebunk, died Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009, after a long bout with kidney disease.

He was born April 7, 1916, in the suburbs of Philadelphia and he attended the Haverford School and Colgate University. During World War II, he served three years as an Army small-arms maintenance instructor. After the war, he lived with his family in the Philadelphia suburbs where he was the owner and president of Harmonic Reed Corporation. He was a member of the Merion Cricket Club and the Philadelphia Racquet Club. They spent summers in Kennebunk until he and Mary retired there. He was a Commodore of the Kennebunk River Club, a member of the Arundel Yacht Club and he served on the boards of the Landing Boat School, the Animal Welfare Society and the United Way.

Tommy, as he was known, was multi-talented yet extremely modest. Throughout the years in Philadelphia, he successfully ran his own company — a manufacturer of musical and scientific toys and games. He held more than 30 patents, including one for the popular game "Perfection," and another for an educational planetarium. As a musician, he played the French horn with the Portland Community Orchestra. He was a lifelong fan of show music and opera.

He was a master handyman, almost single-handedly maintaining their home, known as the "Big House" on Parsons Beach. He was a skilled craftsman of both wood and metal. He created many detailed miniature replicas of pieces of furniture, winning several prizes at miniature shows. In later years when arthritis set in, he created full-size Northwest Indian totem polls. He ground lenses for his own telescopes, made the works for a miniature carousel, miniature steam engines that he often demonstrated at engine shows, and helped provide parts for the Arundel Trolley Museum.

An avid outdoorsman, he loved mountain climbing and hiking, which he often did with his children. He loved the ocean and was an accomplished sailor and navigator. He cruised his 37-foot sailboat "Tova" in the Chesapeake and Penobscot bays as well as the Bahamas and the Florida Keys.

Tommy showed incredible strength during the last five years of his life. Stricken with kidney disease, he never gave up his independence as he suffered the effects of dialysis. Even then, he continued to care for his wife until she died. A most caring and loyal person, he was, above all, devoted to his wife and six children. He will be very much missed.

He is survived by his six children, Beth Fluke and Kin, Charles, H.P., Joe, and Sandy Liversidge; 12 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.

His wife, Mary Curry Parsons, died in March 2006.

A service with a reception following will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 17 at St. David's Episcopal Church, Route 1, Kennebunk. Arrangements are in care of Bibber Memorial Chapel, 67 Summer St., Kennebunk, ME 04043. Visit www.bibberfuneral.com.