Tom Ahlburn

About once every lifetime you meet someone like Tom Ahlburn.

And you end up learning more from Tom about the inner workings of our world than any other single individual. Tom was a Unitarian minister in Providence, R.I., who influenced many people's lives, often without their being aware of it.

We first met him in 1980 and thought he was one of the most brilliant, perceptive people we'd ever met. That day he delivered a sermon on the meaning of life and it was obvious then he knew and understood things that were beyond my own comprehension and that of 98% of the other people in the building. Over the years that perception never changed.

It's sad that he never got to enjoy the retirement that he looked forward to and talked about and that he had earned many times over, ministering to other people's misfortunes throughout most of his life. Yet, we remember him now and hope that wherever he is he knows how much we cared about him.

Tom passed away in 2002 but his words, what few of them were scattered around, remain with us.

• "God and Grandma's Chickens"
• "The Catfish Confessions"
• "Going to meet the Adi Da"
• Farewell

(c) Don DeMaio 2012

do Sarasota