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Thomas Rothchild (Principal)
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Thomas Rothchild
Thursday, February 16, 2012 12:23 PM CST
Thomas Harlan Rothchild, age 88, passed away Feb. 14, 2012, in Ellijay, Ga., after a long illness. He was born March 5, 1923, in St. Paul, Minn. He was preceded in death by his wife Barbara after 65 years of marriage.
Survivors include his son John and daughter Melanie; his sister June Vernon; his brothers Ken and Lee; loving grandchildren Scott Erker, Ann Erker Niccocelli, Chauncey, Sascha, and Berns Rothchild; nieces and nephews; grand nieces and nephews. Tom was raised in St. Paul and LaGrange, Ill., and attended the University of Illinois before being drafted into the U.S. Army in October 1942 and serving until January 1946. In 1947, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Illinois University, and in 1948 obtained his master’s degree from Columbia University’s Russian Institute. He was a lifelong learner, teacher, mentor, and counselor.
He taught high school history in Norwalk, Conn., and in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he became principal of Northeast High School, assistant county superintendent, and a founder of the local educational TV station. Meanwhile, his talented fashionista, Barbara, owned a chain of six dress stores from St. Petersburg to Fort Myers. Having vacationed in the North Georgia hills, they fell in love with the area, left their careers, and moved to a farm near Mineral Bluff in 1968. They devoted most of their time to raising vegetables, and tending cattle and sheep. As the farm wasn’t enough to absorb their enormous energy, Barbara opened a craft and antique furniture store and promoted Appalachian folk artists, while Tom became a homebuilder. In a several-year span, he’d built more than 130 homes, served as justice of the peace, and took a leading role on the local hospital board, Chamber of Commerce, etc. In the mid-1990s, because of ill health, they left North Georgia for Miami, where their son, John, and daughter-in-law Susan resided. Overnight, they went from farms, sheep and cows to a two-bedroom Miami Beach condo, inhabited entirely by Spanish-speakers.
In this new adventure, Barbara worked in a thrift store to benefit AIDS victims, and Tom volunteered at a local museum and the Miami New World Symphony. Their favorite pastime was horse-racing, and they were at the track two or three times a week. When Barbara died in 2010, Tom moved for a year to Edenton, N.C., where John and Susan spent part of the year. But his fondness for North Georgia overtook him again, and he moved back to Mineral Bluff in 2010, where his daughter, Mel, and her husband, Lee, had lived for 20 years on part of the land he’d once owned with Barbara. He spent his last years with them, and rented an apartment in Blue Ridge, until he moved to assisted living (Cameron Hall in Ellijay, a warm and loving environment) where he spent his last two years before he died. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be sent to: Cherry Log Christian Church, 1149 Cherry Log Street, Cherry Log, Ga., 30522; Cameron Hall of Ellijay Assisted Living 114 Penland Street, Ellijay, Ga., 30540; Hospice Advantage 583 Highland Crossing, Suite 12D. Ellijay, Ga., 30540. Henry Cochran Funeral Home of Blue Ridge was in charge of the arrangements.
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