Thomas Gidwitz

Born in Highland Park, Illinois to Gerald Saul Gidwitz and Jane Blumenthal

Gidwitz, he attended Highland Park High School, the Hotchkiss School, Stanford

University and UCLA for a degree in Cinema. He was married to Gail Davidson,

MD.

His literary career spanned most genre’s including: film scripts, novels and short

stories, corporate works, and, eventually, scientific and historical articles and

books for the public; editing the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution members’

magazine and being on the staff at Archeology Magazine. Eventually, he became

obsessed with Popocatepetl Volcano near Mexico City and finished a book on that

not long before he died, considering it his life’s project.

He was an active conservationist, initially working to preserve portions of

Dartmouth, Massachusetts from destructive development, later an early executive

of the Dartmouth Resources Natural Trust, then still later an active member of the

Buzzards Bay Coalition, its longest serving board member, a past president, and

a winner of their Guardian Award . He was a founding organizer of the New

Bedford Science Cafe; and produced three years of the Buzzards Bay Film

Festival, for which he wrote and directed a short movie Call Me Herman , which

won an award at the Wine Country Film Festival. He was also opposed to

legalized gambling, and founded the No Dice Coalition.

He was a bon vivant. He loved travel, art, music, hiking, good food and wine, and

a good party. Any activity involving boats, especially his beloved sailboat, which

he singlehandedly sailed frequently to Quissett Harbor and Martha’s Vineyard,

brought great joy. He played the drums and ukulele with enthusiasm. He was a

detail and research fanatic. He was a talented birder.

He was a member of the New England Science Writers’ Association, the New

Bedford Yacht Club and the Nantucket Pastafarians.

He became known in his last two years for his blog detailing experiences with

leukemia and a few of its myriad complications - he joked that he was “trying to

collect them all”. Nonetheless, he lived ferociously.

Tom leaves behind his wife, his sister Nancy and his brothers, Ronald and Jim.

He was predeceased by his brother Peter; also he leaves numerous nieces,

nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews and cousins.

There will be no immediate services due to the Coved epidemic. At some time in

the future, there will a celebration of his life.

Should anyone wish, donations can be made in his name to Buzzards Bay Coalition: 114 Front Street, New Bedford, MA 02740 or https://www.savebuzzardsbay.org/take-action/donate/donate-now.