CENTER HARBOR, NH – Thomas William Cowie, 68, longtime Plymouth attorney and community volunteer died March 22, 2021, at home following a 10-week bout with metastatic lung cancer.

He leaves his wife of 32 years, Paula Tracy, and their daughter, Eliza Cowie of Boulder Colorado, two brothers, Paul Cowie and Peter Cowie, and their families in Truckee, California, and Fayetteville, N.Y. respectively.

Born October 10, 1952, to Barbara Ann (Olhoff) Cowie and Walter T. Cowie in Syracuse, N.Y., he lived in Barre Vt., Fayetteville, NY, and spent summers on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks before graduating from Fayetteville-Manlius High School in New York in 1971.

At Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU), where he received his bachelor’s degree in political science in 1975, Tom played lacrosse. He became the team’s captain in his senior year and was a leading scorer for all four years. His senior team went on to play in the NCAA playoffs. Tom was chosen by the United States International Lacrosse Association to play in the national North-South All-Star Lacrosse Game at Cornell University in 1975. It featured the best senior lacrosse players in the nation. And although not an official college statistic, Tom was also known for having the best long, blonde ponytail sticking out of his helmet.

His joy was being outside, whether it was waterskiing, skiing, paddling or driving friends and family for a cruise around Squam Lake. To relax, Tom would often play the piano. He could sight-read any song and particularly enjoyed playing Christmas music, sung at annual gatherings with family friends.

His favorite place in the world was the Adirondacks at his childhood summer home “Sunset” a classic Earl Covey designed camp on Big Moose Lake’s Crag Point where he and his brothers spent endless summer days and participated in the lake association’s annual waterski shows.

After college, he spent several years in Truckee, California, enjoying skiing and hiking, and learned the art of stonemasonry along the shores of Lake Tahoe. He participated in the Sierra-Tahoe Pro Ski Circuit in 1977 and 1978 and thru-hiked the 186-mile Tahoe-Yosemite Trail during his time there.

Tom enjoyed all forms of sport, including tennis, softball, and golf. He tried parachute jumping and learned the sport of curling in Plymouth last year. After moving to the Plymouth area in the early 1980s to join his cousin, Bill Cowie, in sales, he took graduate courses at Plymouth State Unversity.

After being urged to consider the practice of law, he enrolled at the former Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, now UNH School of Law, and received his Juris Doctor of law degree in 1986. He then entered the general practice of law with Ross V. Deachman in Plymouth in 1987, later partnering to become the current firm of Deachman & Cowie, P.A.

For Tom, the practice of law was always about helping others solve their problems and being part of a small-town community. His law practice was what he described as “country law” and it involved many charitable efforts. At the state level, Tom volunteered his legal services in the New Hampshire Bar Association Pro Bono Program, offering free legal advice to those in need and served on the New Hampshire Bar Association Board of Governors as a Grafton County Governor and then as a Governor-at-Large from 1991 to 1996.

He also served on the Board of Directors of Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth.
In 1987, at Cannon Mountain in Franconia, NH, he met Paula Tracy as a single in the T-bar lift line. They went on to marry in 1988 and together enjoyed many years of skiing with their daughter, Eliza.

A long-time resident of Rumney N.H., Tom served on numerous boards, including 12 years on the Rumney School Board, beginning in 1997. In addition to serving on a number of social service agencies concerned with child welfare in the Pemi-Baker area, Tom worked to foster a love of local nature, including years serving on the Quincy Bog Board of Directors. He served for almost a decade as a member of the Board of Trustees at the Squam Lakes Natural Sciences Center in Holderness and at the time of his death, he was the Board’s secretary.

His love of lacrosse never left him and that love enriched others in the Plymouth area because of his efforts to establish high school lacrosse teams at Plymouth Regional High School (PRHS). He volunteered to coach lacrosse, first at Plymouth State University as an assistant coach of the men’s varsity team in the mid-1980s, then for boys in the independent White Mountain Wolves league. With a group of others, he campaigned and advocated for the creation of a high school lacrosse program at PRHS. While it took more than a few tries to get the votes at the school district meeting, the program was established in 2008.

Tom was asked to coach the first PRHS women’s team with Maureen Wentzell and by the second year of their coaching, the team won the Division III state championship in 2011.He continued to play lacrosse in the summers with fellow OWU alumni at the Summit Lacrosse tournaments in Lake Placid, N.Y. with his last tournament participation in 2004.

Tom had a strong faith in a higher power and he remained thankful, loving, humorous, forgiving, and forever hopeful till the end. His family wishes to thank the teams at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon and Lakes Region VNA in Meredith. Their exceptional care and kindness allowed him to pass away at home with grace and comfort.

A celebration of his life will be planned for later this year.
Mayhew Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements and updated details can be found at its website https://www.mayhewfuneralhomes.com/obituary-listing

A fund is being established to create a public memorial in his name for the Plymouth area. Gifts to the Thomas Cowie Public Memorial Fund can be left at any branch office of Northway Bank or by mail to Northway Bank 3 Highland Street, Plymouth NH 03264.