FARMINGTON, NH

Thomas R. "Tom" Sauer, 74, of Farmington, died Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, at home after a long battle with declining health.

He was born Sept. 19. 1949, in Bronx, N.Y., the son of Arthur and Virginia (Cohan) Sauer.  When he was three, his family moved to Great Kills on Staten Island, where he had a childhood full of adventures in the woods and on the water. It was there that he developed a lifelong love of fishing and the outdoors.

As a teenager, he traveled each day to the city to attend Brooklyn Technical High School. After graduating in 1967, he briefly attended Florida Institute of Technology before returning to Staten Island after his father's death. He was then drafted into the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam.

When he got out of the service, he spent several years traveling back and forth to Ontario, Canada. Some of his fondest memories and funniest stories were of time spent with friends in Mabella, north of Lake Superior near Thunder Bay, as well as in Toronto and in Wemyss, near Perth.

In 1980, he and Melissa McGrath were married in Claremont, N.H. They moved to Farmington in 1984.

After successfully completing the apprenticeship program in 1986, he worked at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as an air conditioning equipment mechanic until retiring in 2009.

In addition to being an avid bass fisherman and a voracious reader, he enjoyed politics, crossword puzzles, bird watching, music, and sports, especially baseball.

Family members include his wife Melissa, of Farmington; his son, Nicholas, of Farmington; his daughter and son-in-law, Nora Sauer Babb and Zach Babb, of Fairfield, Maine; two grandchildren, Jasper and Eden Babb; a sister and brother-in-law, Cathi and Bob Tramantano of Rockville Center, N.Y.; three nephews, Scott, Glenn, and Keith Tramantano and their families and partners, of Long Island and New York City; several cousins; and his dog, Arlo.

He will also be sorely missed by several good friends locally and in Canada.

His family likes to think that if there is an afterlife, Tom and his fishing buddy Steve "Hawk" Blackburn are in a bass boat on a lake somewhere, swapping stories and angling with the best of them.

Services will be private. A celebration of his life will be held at a later date.

For those who wish to make a memorial donation, the family suggests Cornerstone VNA, 178 Farmington Rd., Rochester, NH 03867.

Cremation care by Peaslee Funeral Home. To express condolences, please visit: www.peasleefuneralhome.com