| After graduation from CHS, Tom went to Temple University, Technical Institute. He studied chemistry and learned that "you need a full degree if you expect the world to respect your abilities". So, after joining Rohm and Haas Co. in 1962, he started attending night school at Temple working on a full BA degree majoring in Chemistry. His degree gave him professional status at Rohm and Haas. He thoroughly loved the job and stayed there for 45 years. Tom says that he got to see much of the U.S. visiting the many R and H plants and even got to South America and Europe. Tom notes that Between working and going to school "I still had time to raise a family on a single salary. Living in Philadelphia We had four children by 1976. Boys on the extremes and girls in the means".
Tom relates that "by the time their last son was born, his first son started high school. Yep, he went to Central too. Graduated in 1980(the 239th class). And right after him, his oldest daughter went to Girls High right up the street"... "and after her, daughter number two also". Tom and his family moved from Philly before his youngest son could go to CHS, so he went through the Hatboro-Horsham School system.
" So now Im retired from Rohm and Haas since last September. Well, I didnt really fully retire. I still am working part time on a project that is trying to capture the knowledge of me and some others who have or will shortly retire before that knowledge is lost. This part- time work is scheduled to continue through March 2010. My wife still kinda works as she baby-sits our granddaughter Maddie who is six years old. Of her two brothers, the oldest will be starting Penn State this fall pursuing a Chemical Engineering curriculum just like his uncle (my youngest son Steve who got his degree in Chemical Engineering at Drexel). His younger brother (grandson #2) is in 11th grade and plans to pursue a degree in Electrical Engineering". Tom adds that "besides catching up on all the household jobs that need doing, I enjoy fishing with my sons. Lately, for the last ten years, our favorite fishing hole has been the St. Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands area. We go there mostly for the Northern Pike fishing since they are not too common in our area (cold water fish). We dont keep any, just take their pictures and put them back. We also fish the local rivers like the Delaware and the Susquehanna. Our family shore vacations have been to Wildwood mostly. Now our older children like Ocean City, so we go there to see them when they go away for the last two weeks in August. Incidentally, some pretty good breakfast meals in Ocean City. The Bacon-Cheese Omelet at Browns is unbeatable... but their coffee is terrible!". Tom adds that "he also enjoys photography, especially now with the digital cameras. He says that he can take 630 pictures without changing out the memory card. He especially enjoys taking a lot of pictures during fishing sessions".
"And computer..." Tom notes that "much of my work at R and H in the last 20 years was heavily computer - dependent and Ive gotten pretty proficient with the various software (word processing, spreadsheet, etc.).
The enclosed photo was taken at Tom's retirement dinner. He notes that "my surprise there was a large copy of a photo that was taken during my high school days so the past and present are combined in one shot". Tom lives in Horsham, PA with his wife, Marie, and daughter Kathy. He has three other children, Tom, his oldest, lives only two houses away from him. His youngest, Steve, lives 2 blocks away. His middle daughter, Karen, lives 2 miles away. Last September, Tom retired after 45 years. He worked as a Distinguished Scientist at Rohm and Haas Company at both the Spring House and Bristol Research Sites. It was good work and a good time to retire. Unfortunately, Tom passed away from cancer on February 11th, 2009 after having only been diagnosed in January. We will miss him.
I'm writing to you on behalf of my father, Thomas G. Throne (CHS 214). I regret to inform you of dad's passing. He was diagnosed with cancer in January 2009 and he succumbed to the disease on Feb 11, 2009.
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