Thomas William Olcott

Thomas William Olcott died August 3, 2025 of natural causes at the age of 93. Tom was born March 22, 1932, in Indianapolis, IN to Ellsworth Landon Olcott of Indianapolis and Lucile Elizabeth Nusbaum Olcott, of Richmond, IN.  Tom graduated from Southside High School of Fort Wayne, IN in 1949, DePauw University with a BA in Chemistry in 1953, and the University of Michigan with an MS in Analytical Chemistry in 1955.  He met and married his wife Barbara Allyn Harvey Olcott while at the University of Michigan.  After graduating from U-M, Tom began his 35-year career with the DuPont Company as a Nuclear Chemist at the Savannah River Heavy Water facility near Aiken, SC.  In 1964, he transferred to the DuPont Washington Works facility in Washington, WV where he worked a variety of technical, supervisory, and employee relations assignments.  In 1979, Tom transferred to the DuPont Fayetteville Works facility where his assignments included Hazardous Waste Coordinator, Radiation Protection Officer, and Environmental and Occupational Health Coordinator before retiring in 1990. 

In WV, Tom coached Little League baseball, sang in the Washington United Methodist Church Choir, and volunteered with the United Methodist Men and the Washington Lions Club.  In Fayetteville NC, he refereed youth tennis, sang in the Westminster Presbyterian Choir and Cumberland Oratorio Singers, and volunteered with the Presbyterian Men and the Museum of the Cape Fear.  His hobbies included gardening and sports, playing tennis and being a fan of many other sporting events and teams including tennis, golf, the Indianapolis 500, NASCAR, the Dodgers, the Green Bay Packers and Duke Basketball.  In the mid-1990s, Tom represented NC in the Senior Olympics in Mixed Doubles Tennis in San Antonio, TX.

Tom is preceded in death by his wife Barbara and his brothers Richard Lee Olcott and John Ellsworth Olcott.  He is survived by his four children Kathryn Olcott (spouse John Egenes) of Port Chalmers NZ and her daughter Kristin Grindle (spouse Matthew) and their children Scarlett and Julian of Stamford, CT, Richard Olcott (spouse Cheryl) of Parkersburg, WV and their son Joshua and his son Landon of Winter Garden, FL and their daughter Jessica Yllemo (spouse Fredrik) and their son Max and daughter Norah of Parkersburg, WV, Patricia Shaw (spouse Daniel) of Southlake, TX and their daughter Megan Shaw Previte (spouse Jack) and their children Zoë and Kai of Flower Mound, TX and their son Morgan (spouse Alice), and Sandra Proshek (spouse Tom) of New Prague, MN and her daughter Melina Hannula (spouse Matthew).

An internment service in Salisbury CT will be scheduled at a later date. Tom requested that memorials be directed to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or The Shriner’s Hospital for Children.

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