Thomas E. Linder Sr.

1925 – 2010

“God didn’t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, But He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears and light for the way.”

EAST WILTON — Thomas E. Linder Sr. passed peacefully into eternal life with Christ on Easter Sunday, April 4, surrounded by his loving family.

Tom was born on March 25, 1925, in Baton Rouge, La., (the eldest of five children) to parents Thomas W. and Lucille (Scott) Linder.

From an early age, he learned to love the outdoors through Boy Scouts and frequent hunting and fishing trips with his dad. He was a proud Navy veteran. He enlisted in 1942, and was a plank owner and lieutenant aboard the USS Agerholme, which was built and launched from Bath Iron Works.

He married his high school sweetheart, Mona E. Roberts on Dec. 27, 1947. They observed their 62nd wedding anniversary during the most recent Christmas holiday season. He graduated from Louisiana State University in 1950, with a master’s degree in chemical engineering and accepted a position with IP in Moss Point, Miss.

Meanwhile, he and Mona were blessed with their four children born in Baton Rouge, La. Then, in 1967, he was offered a promotion and the opportunity to come to the I P Mill in Jay. He accepted and the family came to Maine. It was the beginning of 44 wonderful years for him.

Before he retired in 1985, and in spite of the innumerable hours spent at his job, he was active in the Rotary Club, Boy Scouts, a member of the new Jay High School Building committee and president of the Franklin Memorial Hospital Board of Directors. After ‘retiring”, he and Mona established and operated the Beans Corner Corn Co. for nearly 15 years.

He never capitulated on his love for the outdoors and spent many evenings snapping a fly line on Pease Pond and October Saturdays flushing partridge in the woods near his Beans Corner home.

He and Mona have been charter members of the Farmington Baptist Church since 1991, where he has served as an elder and trustee.

He will be sorely missed by the many who had the opportunity to know him. He was a gentleman among gentlemen. He met everyone with a smile, a handshake and friendly greeting. He had an unyielding loyalty to his faith and family who meant everything to him.

He leaves his wife, Mona, (with whom he shared 80 years of friendship); son, Thomas E. Linder Jr. of Indianapolis, Ind.; daughter and son-in-law, Pamela and Clinton Brooks of Jay; daughter, Paula Linder of Orono and daughter and son-in-law, Charlotte and Michael Nyboe of South Bristol; grandchildren, Ann and Emily Linder, Rebecca and Russell Roy, Curtis Brooks, Christopher and Kimberly Brooks and Jacob Clarence Iratoo; great-grandsons, Chance Brooks and Connor Roy; two sisters, Clara Mae Haefner and her husband, Albert, of Baton Rouge, La., and Mrs. Thomas (Catherine) Marshall of Lynchburg, Va.; as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

He was predeceased by two brothers, John Scott Linder and Harold Morti Linder; and daughter-in-law, Debra “Debbie” Linder.

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