Thomas Fairchild Sherman

Thomas Fairchild Sherman, 89, of Hillsdale, Michigan, died peacefully Tuesday, April 9, 2024. He was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1934 to Katherine Keiper Sherman, and James Morgan Sherman. A gentle man who loved natural history, Thomas graduated from Oberlin College in 1956. He won a Rhodes scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, where he received his Doctor of Philosophy in Biology in 1960. He was a beloved teacher of Physiology and Biology at Oberlin from 1966 to 1996 and retired emeritus. Among his publications were A Place on the Glacial Till; Time, Land, and Nature within an American Town; and Energy, Entropy and the Flow of Nature. Thomas was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, Richard Sherman; his half-sister, Gertrude Sherman; and his daughters, Catharine and Elizabeth Sherman. He is survived by his wife, Katía Sherman; his daughters, Anita, Caroline, and Claire Sherman; and his grandchildren, Alexander Reynolds, Brenna Reynolds, Jacob Reynolds, Pascal Skladany, Theodora Skladany, Beatrice Skladany, and Iris Cancro. The family will hold a private memorial for Thomas.