By Bill Williams
A devoted member of the Williamsburg Bird Club’s extended family was claimed by cancer January 6, 2021. Tom McCary had been a WBC member since 1983 and was granted a Lifetime Membership at the club’s September 20, 2017 Fortieth Anniversary meeting, recognition long and well deserved.
Upon completion of a career in education, Tom assumed vital roles in our organization’s life before health issues compromised his activities. He served as Vice President for Programs for five years, 2003 through 2007, and then was club Historian for 2017 and 2018.
His scholarship and love of birds were blended into essays for The Flyer, among them: “Titmouse 1, Dog 0” (Vol. 32 No. 4-April 2008); “Can’t Find Birds-Pray for Wintry Day” (Vol. 39 No. 2- February 2015); “March 29 Chincoteague or Bust: Chasing Birds from Sun to Sun” (Vol. 39 No. 5-May 2015); and “Another Unusual Bird Sighting” (Vol. 40 No. 9-November 2016). He often regaled us at monthly meetings with eloquent book review recitations. Tom was a regular attendee at the club’s monthly field trips and was an integral member of the club’s annual Spring and Christmas bird counts, covering on foot a large area of the College Woods section, an area of Williamsburg where he grew up and resided before moving to a health care facility near Richmond. Tom occasionally led bird walks at Shirley Plantation, where he was a docent, and was part of the bird-walk leaders team for New Quarter Park.
Above all, Tom embodied the character, dignity, and decorum of a quintessential gentleman. To a person this will be the first and foremost memory anyone who knew him will mention. It was not uncommon to find him dining alone at one of our local eateries, dressed in a coat, tie, and hat. When approached, Tom would stand, smile delightedly as he gave a slight, gracious bow, and then immediately would want to know how you were doing. Learning of Tom’s passing, Virginia Boyles posted this to several of us on January 24: “I remember going to the Capitol Pancake House after birding at the park [New Quarter], and the waitresses knew him by name, and what he wanted to drink before he ordered. They all loved him, and some came by to speak to him, though they were not serving that table.”
During the last year Tom, his attorney and WBC Treasurer, Ann Carpenter, worked through the logistics of a generous bequest to WBC to support our Nature Camp Scholarship funding, lasting evidence of his life devoted to education, scholarship, and birds. Tom McCary’s obituary may be found at this link.
