Thomas F. Tresselt
Thomas Frederick Tresselt died on July 12, 2022 in Hartford Hospital. He was 78. Tom was a basketball star at Evansville Indiana’s Central High school and he would later explain some of the slight inaccuracies of his favorite movie, Hoosier’s. He went on to play for Yale University where, in his Freshman year, he dropped 16 points on Bill Bradley’s Princeton team. Tom graduated in 1965 and went on to the University of Michigan Law School, marrying Sally Fleming on August 6, 1965, a week before becoming a member of Michigan’s Law Review in his 3rd year. He proudly served in the Navy from 1969 to 1971 as Beachmaster, the commanding officer of Beachcommander Unit 2.After the Navy, Tom and Sally moved to San Francisco where Tom was a litigator for Orrick, Herrington, Rowley & Sutcliffe from 1971 to 1974 and then, “tired of always arguing for a living,” moved back east to Hamden, CT where he was Assistant Dean of Yale Law School from 1974 to 1977. In 1977 he and his family moved to West Hartford to join Shipman & Goodwin where he practiced Corporate Law until 2008, jokingly instructing his kids to refer to a client’s product by it full name, Lego Building Blocks and assorted pieces®. He was a lawyer for more than 35 years, and was married to Sally for just shy of 56.
The amazing influence he had on peoples’ lives came with all of the extras. He started S&G’s March Madness pool with a friend back in the early ’80s, pre-computers, offering extensive round-by-round recaps of the standings, calculated manually, with brackets drawn by hand. He MC-ed years of events at the firm, co-created its award show, The Freddies, and was later the firm’s Diversity Partner.
Extremely active at Asylum Hill Congregational Church, he served as Moderator, was co-chair of the capital campaign, served on the Board of Christian Service, was a Deacon, and performed in the Boar’s Head Festival as a king, log carrier, Beefeater and other roles for nearly 20 years. He even performed with Sally in multiple plays and, unsurprisingly, MC-ed The Follys. Outside of the church, he served on the board of Loaves & Fishes, The American School for the Deaf, and Leadership Greater Hartford–3rd Age Initiative.
Most importantly for everyone in his life, he was wonderful to be around. He lit up the room. Funny, thoughtful, sweet, serious and kind, he was interested in everyone–his friends, his family, and their friends and family. Everyone. His laugh was infectious. He asked all of his questions out of curiosity, love, and a true desire to connect. He fought Alzheimer’s, and at the end of his life his difficulty hearing and finding the words to communicate was heartbreaking, but his humor, kindness and love for his family and friends never diminished. He is survived by his beloved wife, Sally, kids Taylor and Jamie, their families–Christine, Hale and Jackson Tresselt, Nick, Kenzi and Caia Fleischhacker– sisters, Sally Proctor and Polly Hirschberg, Polly’s husband, Bill, a wonderful extended family “on the Fleming side,” as well as a truly remarkable number of friends who are just like family.
A celebration of his life was held at Asylum Hill Congregational Church, 814 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, at 10 AM on Friday, July 22, 2022 (masks required). In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (alzfdn.org) or Asylum Hill Congregational Church (ahcc.org).