OAKLAND – On July 15, 2023 Thomas Sholl “passed from being to nothingness”. Those quoted words are from a 1980 Saturday Night Live news skit reporting Jean-Paul Sartre’s death. Once Tom heard Jane Curtain say those words, he knew he wanted his obituary to begin that way.

Thomas E. Sholl was born in Mineola, Long Island, N.Y. on Nov. 26, 1950, the youngest child of Bertram and Ellen Sholl.

His four siblings are John (Lorraine), Robert (Lynn), William (Mary Louise), and Patricia (his favorite sister). He has nieces Jennifer, Liza, and Rebecca and nephews Peter, Thomas, and Gregory.

He was predeceased by his nephew, Edward; and his parents.

Tom attended Catholic schools, and after dropping out of college, worked until he acted on his dream to leave Long Island.

Tom escaped to Maine in 1974. He created the life he wanted and took great joy in it. He married Ruth and gained a dear brother-in-law, Gerry, a much loved niece, Kristen (and her much loved partner, Peter). He worked for the Department of Environmental Protection. We built our forever home. Tom never wanted to go away for vacation. He said he already lived where he would choose to vacation. On any overnight trip, at some point, he would say, “We’ve been here for two days. Can we go home now?”

Tom was a polymath, and took deep dives into, to name a few subjects, geology, physics, horticulture, music theory, and astronomy. He loved learning. He played bridge with some wonderful partners. He gardened with passion. He looked up into the night sky in awe. He listened with a fine ear to classical music and rock and roll alike. And he knew more about physics than any normal person should.

Tom got to die, in his sleep, in the home he so loved (thank you, Bruce, for our beautiful home). This was Tom’s idea of his perfect death.

His life was taken by Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Lobe Degeneration, a rare brain disease that robbed him of who he was. He was symptomatic for about 12 years, finally diagnosed after eight of those years, and needed 24-hour care for the last three years of his life.

Tom donated his brain to the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center to be used for research to better understand the human brain and its disorders.

When Tom and Ruth moved into their perfect home in 1987, Tom announced he wished to live there until he died and then be taken feet first out the front door. On July 15, 2023, his wish was granted, and he left wearing his Brain Donor t-shirt that said, “My brain is going places. Is yours?”

There will be no services or gatherings. Tom’s real desire was to have his body put in a large garbage bag and thrown on the side of the road. When he grudgingly accepted this couldn’t happen (at the least, very tacky; at the most, very illegal) he decided he wanted to be cremated and returned to his gardens and woods.

“Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind.”