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 1928 - 2013 (85 years)
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| Name |
Thomas Richard Holcombe |
| Nickname |
Tom |
| Birth |
1928 |
Kansas City, MO  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
Jun 2013 |
Woodstock, GA |
| Burial |
Woodstock, GA |
| Person ID |
I948 |
Georgia Society Member Graves Registry |
| Last Modified |
6 Apr 2014 |
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| Notes |
- Compatriot Tom Holcombe was a member of the Piedmont Chapter since July 1994, just four months after the Chapter was chartered. Due to a conflict on Saturday mornings he has not been able to attend many of our monthly meetings, but he has nevertheless been very active with our Graves Committee. A former police officer with the City of East Point, Tom did ceramic tile work on the side. Drawing on his experience as a tile worker, Tom picked up the part of cleaning tombstones, making the stones bright and clean with due care not to damage the writing embedded in the stone. This talent has been very useful in refurbishing some long-neglected tombstones of our Revolutionary War patriots.
Tom lived on a 60 acre farm in the Birmingham Community just north of Alpharetta. This farm was purchased from his wife?s family and was owned by members of her family since the early 1800?s, He had three children: Rick, who is in the floor covering business; Dianne, who is a teacher and softball coach at Westminster School; and Robert, who is a welder.
Our compatriot was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1928. In 1939 he moved with his parents to a farm in Illinois. At age 15 he moved to Korea as a military dependent where he soon afterwards joined the Navy. He served aboard the power barge ?Electra? which furnished electric power to towns in South Korea. In 1948 he received a discharge in order to finish school in the American Yokohama High School, graduating in 1950.
After finishing high school Tom joined the Army and served in Korea from July 1950 to December 1951. Returning at last to the U.S., he served for a while at Fort Benning. He was then placed on reserve status at which time he joined the East Point Police Force, serving from 1953 to 1963, during which time he completed the John Marshall Law School as an aid to his law enforcement duties. He then served as Fire and Safety Engineer at Ford Motor Company, taking retirement in 1985.
Tom was a descendant of Elijah Holcombe who served at Valley Forge during the American Revolution. The Holcombe House overlooking the Delaware River near Lambertville, N.J. is the Holcombe family?s ancestral home. The home served at General George Washington?s headquarters from July 1777 until June 1778.
Tom was involved in the 50 patriot graves marked by the chapter and several member graves marked. During this time, he fabricated copper pipes for installation to hold the flag at each grave; medal flag staff holders used by the chapter (8) and state (22) color guards at outdoor ceremonies. He designed a method of embedding 120 pound granite grave stones with 80 pounds of sakrete to insure that the stone would not be easily stolen. He would carefully ?dress? each installation where you could not detect that it had recently been installed. He even designed and fabricated an auger used to install stake markers, named ?Long Tom? by grave committee members. All of this equipment and service was done at his own time and expense.
- Tom Holcombe's grave was marked on March 29, 2014 in a ceremony sponsored by the Piedmont Chapter, GA Society Sons of the American Revolution.
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