Thomas Phillip Dewey, age 88, passed away on Friday, February 21 at Sweden Valley Manor in Coudersport, PA. He was born on December 22, 1936, in Coudersport, PA to Carl and Leah (Austin) Dewey. In his youth, Tom was an avid outdoorsman, hunting, fishing and hiking the back country of Potter County. He was a lover of animals, especially dogs of which he had many over the years and was an avid reader.  

In 1954, he graduated from the “old” high school on Main St where both of his parents taught. Tom was editor of the yearbook his senior year. He attended Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN, majoring in English and Speech and was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, Pi Delta Epsilon (Collegiate Journalism Fraternity) and the Blue Key Honor Society. Graduating in 1958, he was accepted into the prestigious Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa. In 1960, he enlisted in Officer Candidate School (OCS) in the US Navy in Newport, RI. He was commissioned a Lieutenant JG and assigned a post at the National Security Agency in Washington DC, working on intelligence gathering during the early days of the Vietnam War. Living on the Chesapeake Bay, Tom built and raced sailboats in his free time and met his future wife, Patricia O’Neil, with whom they had one child, Phillip.

The family moved to Milford, CT on the shores of Long Island Sound in 1967 where Tom worked for a couple companies in sales and as a commercial artist. He later turned to self-employment with a homegrown cabinetmaking shop after a divorce and a need to stay home to raise his son. In the mid 1970’s they both returned to Coudersport. Tom expanded his business, Custom Cabinetry, over the years, maintaining a shop well into his late 70’s, and diversifying in later years to the complexity of chairmaking. He also introduced the sport of Paddle Tennis to town in 1978 on a court that he and his son built in their backyard. This venue, which he made public, hosted a thriving community of dozens of players at its peak, with a tournament, lesson program for youth and a new business, Custom Courts, to grow the sport regionally.

In his later years, Tom returned to the streams and woods of his youth, small game hunting and fishing with his trusty dog, Sneakers. He also returned to writing and was a regular contributor to the Potter Leader-Enterprise for which he won several awards over the years. Ever the creative entrepreneur, he partnered with a local software designer in the late 1990’s to launch a computer program, FlyBase, to aid fly fishermen with the difficult task of matching hatches on regional streams. It required hundreds of hours of entomological data uploading and stream and weather analysis on the back end and an uphill marketing battle on the front in what were the early days of personal computing. Today, with the explosive popularity of Pickleball and an app for nearly everything on our phones, one friend recently remarked that Tom was a man with great ideas who was simply ahead of his time.    

He is survived by his son, Phillip Dewey of Ann Arbor, MI, several nieces and nephews including Cathy Dewey, of Coudersport and a granddaughter, Leah Allegheny Dewey, a namesake for his mother and the river of his youth.

Donations in his name can be made to the Teacher’s Pet Rescue, 19 Blackberry Ln, Coudersport, PA 16915; The Coudersport Public Library, 502 Park Ave, Coudersport, PA 16915; or Gods Country Chapter of Trout Unlimited, P.O. Box 702, Coudersport, PA 16915.  Tom’s arrangements have been entrusted to the Thomas E. Fickinger Funeral Home 210 North East Street Coudersport.  To share a memory or condolence with his family visit www.thomasfickinger.com.