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Years back, Tom Hall of Foster built a huge chimney for his house. It contains an impressive array of stones that signify various aspects of his life. Included are pieces that range from unusual, delicate specimens to massive weight-bearing blocks.
One treasured element that most likely weighs less than a pound comes from the Sea of Galilee in Israel. In contrast, there is an imposing block of granite that would probably tip the scale at half a ton. It sits above the fireplace opening and stretches across almost the full length of the face of the sizeable chimney.
The imposing slab once was intended to be a step leading into a local church. When plans changed, Tom acquired it and incorporated it into his chimney. Almost every stone in the impressive structure has its own story. Taken together they help tell the tale of the remarkable man who assembled them.
At age 90, the dynamic retired English teacher seems as solid as the stones he carefully put together. Born in New York City, Thomas Watkins Hall Jr. grew up in Greenville.
“I was born elsewhere, but Greenville is home. I have lived in Foster for many years, but Greenville is my hometown. Greenville was a damn nice place to grow up.”
His family is well-known there. His father, a Navy veteran of both World Wars, was a teacher at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence and active in the Smithfield community. His mother was also known for her service to the town and her involvement in the library and leadership with the Girl Scouts of Rhode Island.
“I learned many good things and a couple to avoid from my Dad,” he chuckles, adding “He was a good man.”
Tom went to William Winsor School, Mount Pleasant High School, and Dartmouth College where he majored in philosophy. He thought about going into the ministry, but instead he studied English and education in addition to his major. Later he did graduate study at Brown University.
In 1955 he joined the Navy and stayed in until 1961. After he got out, he applied for a post at Ponaganset High School and soon was hired to teach English. Concurrently, he developed his skills as a stone mason, learning the trade from a mentor named John Rose, who is remembered in Foster for his masonry skill and his great knowledge of local history.
Examples of Tom’s stonework through the years include the outer facing of the foundation of the historic Foster Town House when it was retrofitted with a basement, having originally been built without one. He also took part in the restoration of the town’s animal pound, and he has made repairs and improvements to the Foster Center Fire Station and the South Foster Fire Station among other projects.
“I’ve been a fiddler, a stone mason, and I’ve repaired a number of automobiles, too, you know,” he declares, while not dwelling on his career as a schoolteacher.
His association with music began at home as a youth. His mother played piano. Early in college he was thrust into the leadership of a group called the Hanover Hoe-Downers when the older members graduated.
“I started off on the ukulele,” he recounts. He progressed to the mandolin and then the violin and the guitar. He also became a square dance caller. It was the beginning of a long-time avocation performing music. He settled on the violin as his primary instrument.
In 1971 he joined the Old Fiddler’s Club of Rhode Island and got to know Frank Moon, who Tom describes as a great guy. It is obvious that giving people their due is important to him.
“He was the club, if you know what I mean, and he was far and away the best fiddler. I loved the man,” he says.
Today, Tom is president of the organization which performs at public events and such. With John Gould and Susan Waterman he is also part of a three-person group called The Foster Fling.
“We settled on that name because while we pick up a buck here and there, we really do it as a fling,” he mentions with a smile.
The most compelling pursuit that has occupied him since just before he retired from teaching up to the present is his involvement in religious practice and scholarship. His early attraction to the pulpit had motivated him to keep investigating Christian beliefs.
He befriended the Rev. Robert Cooper, who was the pastor at Foster Center Baptist Church, and he attended services there. He later followed Rev. Cooper to a church in Killingly, Conn. Eventually he was invited to fill in for the minister when he had to be absent from a service.
“I said I can’t do a sermon, but I did it, and I discovered I could,” Tom notes.
Thereafter for a total of some 16 years he served as a lay minister at four different nearby congregations.
He also discovered the Jesus Seminar and began following it. A project of the Westar Institute, the seminar’s objective was to attempt to discern which quotes and activities attributed to Jesus in the bible were true and which most likely were not.
Tom became an associate member of the Institute in 1996 and today is a life member. In his capacity with the organization over the last 25 years he has edited some 70 books and many academic papers for it. He describes his role as being a “literary midwife.”
Characterizing himself as very liberal in his interpretation of the scriptures, he asserts, “if it doesn’t pass muster in the intellectual world of the 21st century, it doesn’t pass muster with me.”
In 2021 he wrote his own book on the need for Christianity to re-focus itself in terms of the evolving world. It is called “Time to Come Clean: Rescuing Jesus from Christianity.”
Summing up his experiences, this modern-day Renaissance man says, “I was born to be a teacher. Always curious, I wanted to learn, and I wanted to know, and I wanted to teach.”
(Contact me at smithpublarry@gmail.com)
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