Thomas Hamilton

Thomas Ian Collins Hamilton, 85, of Wilmot Creek, Newcastle, Ontario, passed away in his home in the early morning of Saturday, November 9, 2019 after battling bladder and bowel cancers.
A Celebration of Life will be held in December at a date to be determined. Newcastle Funeral Home is taking care of his Aquamation and the family will be scattering his ashes at Kashe Lake in Muskoka at a future date. Donations should go to The Terry Fox Foundation which the family has supported since first seeing Terry Fox running his Marathon of Hope
Thomas was very bright and studied at University of Toronto Schools where he was quarterback. He went onto University of Toronto where he studied Engineering and joined the Naval Reserve. After he left university he joined the Toronto Signal Drum Corps. Drum Corps brought Dave Jewel and his children Eileen and Ian, Don Gill, wife Marg, their children Wyatt and Tammy, and John Connell, wife Lynne and their daughters Tracey and Sherry and all of their families.
When dad was in his 20's he learned to ski and spent time doing just that in Europe. He joined the ski patrol which was just like him to help others. He used that training to take care of all our bumps, cuts and bruises.
He was a computer programmer long before it was the job to have. One thing he taught me was to always talk to the end user. To me this didn't just mean in programming, but in everything, treat everyone equally. Many of my friends have reached out to me and told me how much they liked my dad. He always had stories to tell and didn't care about your background or level of education. He taught me to accept everyone as they are. When I was in Korea it was reinforced that if I needed something fixed he would be there and figure it out.
As a father he was involved in the Home and School association, even serving as President. He also served on the executive of the Community Association and helped start the Highland Creek Men’s League. He and his drum corps friends started the Drum Corps Alumni Toronto. They started the DCAT Chorus DCAT Chorus and performed at Roy Thompson Hall.

He was a good man and a loved father and grandfather. Growing up he was there for all the important events. He was there to cheer us on at Birchmount, softball, dance recitals or anything else. He even coached Ian's soccer team. He was thrilled when Ian graduated from High School because he knew how hard Ian had worked for it.
I still remember him sitting on the floor between my bed and Lisa's while he read us Anne of Green Gables. Ian being seven years younger than me was already tucked in bed. He was an animal lover and loved to play fetch with our cat Scrappy.
When we were young we would take road trips to Sudbury to see his mother, and his sister, Aunt Betty and her family. Back then there weren't as many radio stations so we used to sing songs. It was great.
He never missed an episode of Jeopardy and I often said he should audition. When we played Trivial Pursuit it was him against me, mom, Lisa and Ian and he always won. The only questions he missed were pop culture.
He is survived by his wife of 55 years Beatrice Raye Stewart Hamilton, Lisa Raye LeMoine and husband Martin, their children Jacob, Phillip, Colin and Deanna, Lara, Ian and sons Justin and Josh, sister Elizabeth Hamilton Curry (pre-deceased), brother-in-law Don Curry, nephew Cliff, his wife Martine, their children Jennifer and Matthew, niece Cathy her husband Peter, their daughter Jessica. He will be remembered fondly by friends from grade and two Michael Gross and wife Joan, and Bob Hamil.

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