Thomas Irving Crowell III, of Charlottesville, Virginia, died at the age of 101, on Monday, October 10, 2022 at the Martha Jefferson House. He was born on July 9, 1921 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, the oldest of four sons of Pauline Whittlesey Crowell and Thomas Irving Crowell Jr. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Wheat Crowell, R.N. (UVA 1950) and his brother, James W. Crowell, of Hanover, New Hampshire.

Tom is survived by two brothers, David A. Crowell of Concord, Massachusetts, and Kenneth L. Crowell and his wife, Marnie Reed Crowell of Sunset, Maine; his two daughters, Lesslie A. Crowell and Mary Allison Crowell, both of Charlottesville, Virginia; two grandsons, Gustave H. Rathe of Howardsville, Virginia, and Thomas C. Rathe and his wife, Sarah Cheshire, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama; sister-in-law, Deborah Crowell of Hanover, New Hampshire; and many nieces and nephews.

Tom attended public schools in his home town of Caldwell, New Jersey and The Putney School in Putney, Vermont. After graduating from Harvard University in 1943, he worked as a chemist on the Manhattan Project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New York City. At the end of World War II, he entered graduate school at Columbia University (Ph.D. 1948 in the laboratory of Professor Louis P. Hammett). While at Columbia he commuted to Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York to teach math. He joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1948 -but not before spending part of the summer riding a 3 speed bicycle from Manhattan to Quebec. At UVA he taught courses in organic and physical-organic chemistry and served as chairman of the chemistry department from 1957 to 1962.

At the University of Virginia's old Cobb Chemical Laboratory, Tom renovated a large corner room and used his glassblowing experience to make chemical apparatus. His research was in kinetics, the science of observing how fast substances react with each other when mixed, an important means of learning how new products are formed in nature. He and his students did early work using hot molten salts as solvents. He loved working in his laboratory more than sitting at his desk, and after retiring from UVA in 1984, he continued working in his home lab until he was 90. He was employed by Du Pont in Waynesboro, Virginia during the summer og 1951.

Tom was an enthusiastic amateur musician, studying piano from childhood to age 17, accompanying his brother and parents, all violinists. Later, at UVA, he played chamber music with many friends and was piano accompanist for the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas sponsored by the AAUW in Cabell Hall, and for the University Singers.

However, he always considered the French horn his primary instrument. He was president of the Harvard University Orchestra and played in the Massachusetts N.Y.A. Orchestra, the Columbia University Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony. He was a founding member of the University of Virginia Orchestra in 1949 and played in several wind quintets in Virginia, and earlier, in New York City.

Tom was a member of the Charlottesville Municipal Band in 1948 and played for several years with the Senior Center's Second Wind Band.

The study of nature brought Tom immense pleasure, and he spent much of his time hiking alone or with friends in New Hampshire, the Maine woods, and Virginia's Blue Ridge. In his later years, neighbors met him on his daily walks as recently as last spring. He also enjoyed playing tennis and sailing in the waters off Cape Cod. He was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville; the NAACP; Wednesday Music Club; and the American Chemical Society.

The family wishes to thank Tom's physicians, also the entire staff of the Martha Jefferson House for their kind and expert care.

A memorial service will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville, 717 Rugby Road, Charlottesville, on Saturday, November 5, 2022, at 3 p.m. Hill and Wood is handling arrangements.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to Southern Environmental Law Center, 120 Garrett Street, Suite 400, Charlottesville, VA 22902, or to the Martha Jefferson House, 1600 Gordon Avenue, Charlottesville, VA 22903.

Published by Daily Progress from Oct. 16 to Oct. 23, 2022.