[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 89 (Friday, May 21, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E567]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         IN MEMORY OF TOM COWIE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANN M. KUSTER

                            of new hampshire

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 21, 2021

  Ms. KUSTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and remember the 
life of Tom Cowie, a dedicated father and a passionate member of the 
greater Plymouth community. In Depth NH, a local New Hampshire 
newspaper, published an obituary of my friend Tom that I include in the 
Record:

       Center Harbor, NH.--Thomas William Cowie, 68, longtime 
     Plymouth attorney and community volunteer died March 22, 
     2021, at home following a 10-week bout with metastatic lung 
     cancer.
       He leaves his wife of 32 years, Paula Tracy, and their 
     daughter, Eliza Cowie of Boulder Colorado, two brothers, Paul 
     Cowie and Peter Cowie, and their families in Truckee, 
     California, and Fayetteville, N.Y. respectively.
       Born October 10, 1952, to Barbara Ann (Olhoff) Cowie and 
     Walter T. Cowie in Syracuse, N.Y., he lived in Barre Vt., 
     Fayetteville, NY, and spent summers on Big Moose Lake in the 
     Adirondacks before graduating from Fayetteville-Manlius High 
     School in New York in 1971.
       At Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU), where he received his 
     bachelor's degree in political science in 1975, Tom played 
     lacrosse. He became the team's captain in his senior year and 
     was a leading scorer for all four years. His senior team went 
     on to play in the NCAA playoffs. Tom was chosen by the United 
     States International Lacrosse Association to play in the 
     national North-South All-Star Lacrosse Game at Cornell 
     University in 1975. It featured the best senior lacrosse 
     players in the nation. And although not an official college 
     statistic, Tom was also known for having the best long, 
     blonde ponytail sticking out of his helmet.
       His joy was being outside, whether it was waterskiing, 
     skiing, paddling or driving friends and family for a cruise 
     around Squam Lake. To relax, Tom would often play the piano. 
     He could sight-read any song and particularly enjoyed playing 
     Christmas music, sung at annual gatherings with family 
     friends.
       His favorite place in the world was the Adirondacks at his 
     childhood summer home ``Sunset'' a classic Earl Covey 
     designed camp on Big Moose Lake's Crag Point where he and his 
     brothers spent endless summer days and participated in the 
     lake association's annual waterski shows.
       After college, he spent several years in Truckee, 
     California, enjoying skiing and hiking, and learned the art 
     of stonemasonry along the shores of Lake Tahoe. He 
     participated in the Sierra-Tahoe Pro Ski Circuit in 1977 and 
     1978 and thru-hiked the 186-mile Tahoe-Yosemite Trail during 
     his time there.
       Tom enjoyed all forms of sport, including tennis, softball, 
     and golf. He tried parachute jumping and learned the sport of 
     curling in Plymouth last year. After moving to the Plymouth 
     area in the early 1980s to join his cousin, Bill Cowie, in 
     sales, he took graduate courses at Plymouth State University.
       After being urged to consider the practice of law, he 
     enrolled at the former Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, 
     now UNH School of Law, and received his Juris Doctor of law 
     degree in 1986. He then entered the general practice of law 
     with Ross V. Deachman in Plymouth in 1987, later partnering 
     to become the current firm of Deachman & Cowie, P.A.
       For Tom, the practice of law was always about helping 
     others solve their problems and being part of a small-town 
     community. His law practice was what he described as 
     ``country law'' and it involved many charitable efforts. At 
     the state level, Tom volunteered his legal services in the 
     New Hampshire Bar Association Pro Bono Program, offering free 
     legal advice to those in need and served on the New Hampshire 
     Bar Association Board of Governors as a Grafton County 
     Governor and then as a Governor-at-Large from 1991 to 1996.
       He also served on the Board of Directors of Speare Memorial 
     Hospital in Plymouth.
       In 1987, at Cannon Mountain in Franconia, NH, he met Paula 
     Tracy as a single in the T-bar lift line. They went on to 
     marry in 1988 and together enjoyed many years of skiing with 
     their daughter, Eliza.
       A long-time resident of Rumney N.H., Tom served on numerous 
     boards, including 12 years on the Rumney School Board, 
     beginning in 1997. In addition to serving on a number of 
     social service agencies concerned with child welfare in the 
     Pemi-Baker area, Tom worked to foster a love of local nature, 
     including years serving on the Quincy Bog Board of Directors. 
     He served for almost a decade as a member of the Board of 
     Trustees at the Squam Lakes Natural Sciences Center in 
     Holderness and at the time of his death, he was the Board's 
     secretary.
       His love of lacrosse never left him and that love enriched 
     others in the Plymouth area because of his efforts to 
     establish high school lacrosse teams at Plymouth Regional 
     High School (PRHS). He volunteered to coach lacrosse, first 
     at Plymouth State University as an assistant coach of the 
     men's varsity team in the mid-1980s, then for boys in the 
     independent White Mountain Wolves league. With a group of 
     others, he campaigned and advocated for the creation of a 
     high school lacrosse program at PRHS. While it took more than 
     a few tries to get the votes at the school district meeting, 
     the program was established in 2008.
       Tom was asked to coach the first PRHS women's team with 
     Maureen Wentzell and by the second year of their coaching, 
     the team won the Division III state championship in 2011. He 
     continued to play lacrosse in the summers with fellow OWU 
     alumni at the Summit Lacrosse tournaments in Lake Placid, 
     N.Y. with his last tournament participation in 2004.
       Tom had a strong faith in a higher power and he remained 
     thankful, loving, humorous, forgiving, and forever hopeful 
     till the end. His family wishes to thank the teams at 
     Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon and Lakes 
     Region VNA in Meredith. Their exceptional care and kindness 
     allowed him to pass away at home with grace and comfort.

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