Charles F. Thoms

Charles F. (Chuck) Thoms LYONS - Charles F. (Chuck) Thoms, of Cole Road in Lyons, N.Y., died on Wednesday (March 18, 2015). He was 86 years old. A celebration of Chuck Thoms' life will be planned at a future date. In lieu of flowers, gifts in Chuck's memory can be made to the Wayne County Humane Society. Chuck was born on January 18, 1929 in Lyons, New York to Emma and Charles Thoms. He was born at the beginning of the last year of the roaring twenties. By the end of the year he was born, the United States was in the Great Depression. During those years of the great depression, Emma and Charles lived and worked on farms throughout the rural areas around Lyons, N.Y. Some of the farms that Chuck lived on in his youth included Alice Van Wickle's dairy farm on the Bauer Van Wickle Road, the Bastian Farm on Leach Road, and the Roland Lutes Farm in Alloway. Until he was in the 7th grade, Chuck went to school in many of the one-room school houses that were scattered throughout the rural areas around Lyons that served the children that lived and worked on surrounding farms. Some of the schools that Chuck was a student in included the Jackson Hill School House and the Sutton and Old Pre-Emption Road School House. Chuck joined the army in 1945 and was stationed in occupied Germany following the close of World War II and served as an MP. Upon returning home after his military service, Chuck married Betty Messenger of Lyons in 1951. They were married and lived together for 63 years. Together they raised three children, Mike, Patty, and Chris. After the army, Chuck starting a roofing business and worked throughout Lyons. He was known for doing very good work and being very competent at whatever job he took on. In 1965, Chuck was elected Town of Lyons Highway Superintendent. The quality of work he did on that job was affirmed by the voters of Lyons who choose him for the position a total of 11 times over the next 22 years, until he retired in 1988. Although he received many complaints from students in the Lyons Central School District because of the rarity of snow-days under his watch, the rest of the community held him in high esteem and he was highly praised for the fine condition of the roads in the town, the elimination of dirt roads, the professional upkeep of town equipment and facilities, and was considered the most professional and conscientious highway superintendent in all of Wayne County. For his work as the Town Highway Superintendent, and for his civic service to the community, Chuck was named the Lyons Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year in 1989. Outside of his professional career, Chuck was also an adept land and resource manager. Over his lifetime, Chuck owned and tended orchards with apples, peaches, pear, and cherry trees and kept honey-bee hives that pollinated those crops. Chuck managed woodlots where he implemented uneven-age hardwood management/selective harvest regimes for maple, beech, black cherry, and oak logs. Chuck planted his yard with a wide variety of trees that he chose for a combination of their attractiveness to wildlife, their stateliness, or their rarity. Chuck also kept White-Faced Hereford Cattle for beef that shared the pastures adjacent to his home with a pony named Champ. Chuck planted numerous acres of Christmas Trees with his son and grandson; they sold some, set some up in the lobby of the Lyons National Bank on Williams Street for the holidays, and let many keep growing. Of all things, Chuck most liked spending time cultivating his garden. He'd start tomatoes from seed early in the spring on window sills inside the house, then transplant them to a lean-to greenhouse, and finally to the garden where they were surrounded by sweet corn, basil, lettuce, peppers, rhubarb, garlic, onions, and much more. His strains of peppers and garlic were nearly proprietary as he selected seeds and cloves each year to be planted the next. His garlic once won top honors at the New York State Fair and his peppers were so hot that he was almost the only one who could eat them.Chuck loved animals, especially his German shepherds Cam, Sam, Babe, Boss, and Ginger. Chuck put up blue bird boxes throughout his property, encouraged the barn swallows to nest in his barns, and put up a kestrel box with his grandson that has been home to generations of America kestrels since it was put up on Cole Road over 25 years ago. Chuck very much enjoyed fishing and hunting especially in the Thousand Islands, and the Eastern Adirondacks and on his woodlands around his home. As per the times he came from, Chuck enjoyed his whiskey and his drink of choice was the 4:00 p.m. Manhattan which he took sweet leaving out the dry vermouth. In his later years, Chuck made great friends with a number of Amish families and worked with them on their farms around Marengo-farms very close to the same farms he grew up working on. Likely it is partly due to coming up in the great depression; likely it was his parents who taught him and set the example; perhaps it was the farms that he grew up on; what is for certain is that Chuck had a very strong work ethic and a particularly strong diligence towards doing things well. He believed in leaving a place better then he found it. He was not a short-cut kind-of person and thoroughly believed in getting a job done and doing it well. When someone needed help, Chuck was there. When there was a difficult job to do, he was the first to step up. Chuck Thoms has left a mark in this world and will always be remembered as an accomplished person due to his hard work, his ability to learn and do, and his strong work ethic. Chuck is survived by his wife of 63 years, Betty; his sons, Mike Thoms and wife Pam of Lyons, Chris Thoms of Lyons; his daughter, Patty Scarcelli and husband John; his sisters, Betty Disanto of Lyons, and Leila Miller of Palmyra; brother, Paul Thoms of Snyder; his grandchildren, Erin Graupman and husband Cory of Greece, Andy Thoms and wife Maite Lorente of Sitka, Alaska, and Ethan Thoms of Lyons; his great-grandchildren, Brady and Allie Graupman of Greece, N.Y. www.keysorfuneralhomes.com