David Haskell Thomas

David Haskell Thomas, 93, of Nashua, NH, passed away peacefully on September 26, 2024. Dave was born on April 15, 1931, to Francis and Isabel Thomas in Cambridge, MA. He grew up in Winchester and met the love of his life and future wife Barbara (Buffie) while attending Winchester High School. Dave attended ROTC at Dartmouth College and graduated with an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck school in 1954. His subsequent army tour in Germany as a lieutenant, accompanied by his new wife, Buffie, produced stories that he told for the next seventy years. Immediately hired by IBM after his army tour, Dave excelled as a sales manager of their mainframe computers. Teaching new sales personnel the finer points of marketing mainframe computers was a strength and passion of Dave’s. Dave and Buffie raised their son and daughter in rural Weston, CT, and spent summers as a family on Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. Like Sisyphus, Dave constantly rebuilt his stone-filled dock by hand on this lake, only to have it swept away by ice every other year. An early retirement package from IBM allowed Dave and Buffie to relocate to Hiltonhead, SC, and then Aiken, SC. A trip to Egypt and an Alaskan cruise were highlights in Dave and Buffie’s many travels together. They enjoyed fifty years of marriage together before Buffie’s death in 2005. Dave then moved to NH to be near his daughter and her family.

Besides Buffie, Dave loved: flying his airplane, fixing anything around the house that was broken, having friends over for cocktails, German food, working behind the scenes for Emmanuel Church of Weston, CT, attending high school reunions with Buffie, beating his son at table tennis, playing croquet, sharing a Starbucks coffee with his daughter, talking aviation with his son, sharing family BBQ’s on the deck with his daughter, visits with his sister’s extended family and watching his grandchildren grow up.

He is survived by his son, David B. Thomas and his wife Rebecca of Troy, MI; his daughter, Kerrie J. Van Dalsum and her husband Michael of Bedford, NH; seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.