Thomas N. Prinster (June 17, 1945 – August 28, 2018) Thomas N. (Tom) Prinster died suddenly and unexpectedly at his home in Wakefield, Rhode Island on August 28th. Tom was born in Grand Junction, Colorado. From early on, he had a passion for hunting, fishing, skiing, and mountain climbing, earning his pilot’s license while still in high school. After graduating from Gonzaga University, he served five years as a navy pilot, flying a Grumman S2F Tracker as a Lieutenant Commander off the USS Enterprise during the Vietnam War. Tom continued his love of flying as a pilot for Pilgrim Airlines. On a routine commuter flight in February 1982, a fire broke out. Black smoke filled the cockpit. Intense heat melted the headsets making communication with his copilot impossible. With his hands on the controls and his head out the open window, he made an emergency landing on the frozen Scituate Reservoir, considered one of the most outstanding feats of flying in aviation history. “It was like being in the middle of a bonfire,” Tom later reported. Tom was burned over 70% of his body. He spent six months in the burn center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and over a year in and out of the hospital. He received the Flight Safety Foundations 1982 Heroism Award, and was honored by President Reagan at the White House. The landing site in Scituate, Rhode Island was renamed Prinster-Hogg Park. During his long recovery, Tom met his beloved and best friend Joyce Anderson. He earned two Masters degrees, one in English Literature and one in Counseling. They moved to Arizona where he pursued an active psychotherapy practice. Tom read voraciously and traveled extensively. He was an avid bicyclist and enthusiastic gardener. He took a leadership role in his Tucson retirement community, participating on the Board as Maintenance Director, as well as leading a charge to promote xeriscape. Tom wrote and published short stories and had recently completed a novel based on his experiences as a pilot. He was larger than life, in all ways. His death brings to mind a line from Maya Angelou’s poem, When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down… Tom had a keen intellect, strong sense of adventure, a love of nature, and an irreverent sense of humor. He was constant, loyal, a joiner on his own terms. Underneath his “mountain man” exterior there lived a kind and gentle man. Tom is survived by Joyce Anderson, his wife, best friend, and beloved of 26 years, his faithful dog Monty, his three step-children Kendra, Kyra, and Axel, his four step-grandchildren Jake, Elliot, Wyatt, and Camila, his brother Anthony, sisters Bernadette and Tari, and six nieces and nephews. The special bond with his step-grandson Jake Anderson O’Flaherty, the ‘son he never had,’ was a central part of his life. A memorial service for Tom is planned for September 30th at 2:00pm in Wakefield, Rhode Island at 40 Mitchell Avenue. A service in Tucson will be held in November. The family requests no flowers. Contributions can be made in Tom’s memory to The Sumner M. Redstone Burn Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston or the charity of your choice.
Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Thomas N Prinster 2018.
Death notice for the town of: Greenville, state: Rhode Island