Tom Dobson

Thomas Frank Dobson, of Brown County, died Saturday, 24 October 2015.  He had recently been diagnosed with serious illness, but his passing at this time was unexpected.

He was born 13 August 1948 in Madison, Wisconsin, the middle of the three sons of Richard "Dobby" Dobson and Dorothy Schulz Dobson, and grew up in Oregon and New Mexico, and later Indiana.  He graduated from West Lafayette High School in 1966 and from Indiana University Bloomington in 1970 with a degree in economics, though he was more interested in art.

A subsequent job in the insurance field took him back to New Mexico but, soon disenchanted with this path, he returned to Bloomington and IU to study  teaching with the goal of becoming a high school American History teacher.  On the verge of completing his studies, realizing that he would not be permitted to teach the subject the way he wanted, he abandoned pursuit of the degree.

He gravitated to construction work, soon his main livelihood, and rotated irregularly for years between the East (San Francisco) Bay area, various Colorado locations (both near Denver and at higher elevations) and Bloomington, eventually realizing that he needed his own place.

The summer day he signed the papers on ten beautiful acres in northwestern Brown County, he pitched a tent and moved to the property.  By winter he had upgraded to a small trailer, which was his home while he worked on a house.  He married Susan Kornblum in January 1989, and they raised their son together in the home he had been building.

Tom worked throughout south-central Indiana, mostly on large public projects around Bloomington and Columbus, and later at building and remodeling grocery stores over a wider area.

Tom was a member of, and former officer in, Local 1664 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.  He retired in 2011 and enjoyed what he recently described as the best four years of his life.  The love he had for his land, combined with his private nature, caused him to stay mostly, and happily, at home, living a relaxed but productive lifestyle.  He looked around at the beauty of the land and let it show him his creative path.   He walked every day with his dog, regardless of weather;  he worked in his wood shop, maintained and made improvements to his home and land, read quite a lot, and sometimes swam at the Nashville Y.

Tom's survivors include his wife, Susan Dobson Kornblum, of rural Brown County; his son, Mike Dobson, of Austin, Texas; a brother, Rob Dobson, of Scottsdale, Arizona; a niece, Kaisa Goodman (Dakota Walker), of Bloomington; another brother, Jim Dobson, of Florida, and Sophie, a 4-year-old Golden Retriever.

There will be a memorial remembrance for Tom at the big shelterhouse in Yellowwood State Forest on Sunday, the 8th of November at 1:00 pm.  Memorial contributions can be made in his name to Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan, P.O.Box 2632, Bloomington, IN 47402.