Thomas C. Merchant Memorial Scholarship Fund

Tom Merchant was born in East Boston in 1933. His family moved to Winthrop when he was 11, where he sailed, played tennis, and learned to love the outdoors. Tom graduated from Winthrop High in 1950.

After graduation, Tom worked several jobs before enlisting in the Army, serving in Germany in the 63rd Tank Battalion. While in Europe, Tom traveled widely and spent time in Paris. After his discharge, he moved to Colorado, where he worked as a ski instructor in the winter and a ranch hand in the summer. He loved his rustic life in Colorado. He graduated from Western State College in 1969 with a BA. Tom might have stayed in Colorado, but in 1969 his father died, and he returned to Massachusetts to be with his mother and two sisters.

When Tom returned to Boston, he found his passion – teaching. He taught English at Wakefield until his retirement in 1996. He ran the Wakefield Adult Education program for over 14 years. Along the way, he earned a Master’s degree in education from Salem State College in 1978. He received a special achievement award from the Wakefield Alumni Association in 2009 to recognize his contributions to Wakefield education.

Tom always claimed that he was “too busy” to get married. When he wasn’t teaching, he golfed. And when he wasn’t golfing, he pursued his other passions: music and theatre. He co-founded the Wakefield Choral Society (1988) and the Wakefield Repertory Theatre (1991). He loved attending both professional and amateur theatre and music events. His favorite musical was Les Misérables which he must have seen a dozen times. He appreciated the work it took to stage a play and could always find the good in nearly any performer.

While the Town of Wakefield knew him as a self-described “behind the scenes guy” who was good at getting things done, his family knew him as the gregarious guy who lived life on his own terms and shared funny stories about the sports celebrities he met while bartending at The Colonial. He never turned down an invitation to a family event. In the summer, you could count on him to show up in one of his three convertibles: a Tony-Soprano classic black Cadillac, a mint-green Impala, or a funky Ford Falcon.

Tom was active with The Scholarship Foundation for many years. When he died in 2022, his special request was for a scholarship to be funded in his name to help students who want to study theatre or music. We hope that the recipients of this scholarship will remember the teacher who lived life on his own terms and loved every minute.