Course Leader

Contact Information

Tom Lathrop

tlathrop1@hotmail.com

(585) 747-0992

Biography

Tom Lathrop grew up near Auburn, in central New York. He attended McGill University in Montreal. He lived in Buffalo before moving to Rochester in 1977. He attended RIT at night while working full time, and graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering in 1983. He worked as a software engineer for Harris Corporation, Eastman Kodak, and Pharos Systems.  He and his wife Connie live in Brighton.

Tom joined Osher upon his retirement from Pharos in January 2013. He has enjoyed taking a variety of courses and exploring new interests. Tom has been leading Osher courses since 2014. His first course was a five-week course on the History of New Netherland and Colonial New York. He has also led courses on the Colonial History of New England, the History of Canada, the Early Middle Ages, and Early New York State History. In addition, he has led several one session courses: one on World's Fairs in the Nineteenth Century, one on the 1939 and 1964 New York World's Fairs, one on the Salem Witch Trials, one on the history of cellphones, and one on Christopher Columbus. Tom is a Wizard, a member of the Technology Committee, and he leads the Apple/Mac SIG (Special Interest Group).

Tom has had a lifelong interest in history, and has been researching his family genealogy since 1982. It was his interest in genealogy that first inspired him to lead Osher courses about colonial American history. He has a variety of other interests. He is an audiophile, and enjoys listening to recorded music on a high quality stereo system. He and Connie subscribe to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Geva Theater, and they are avid fans of the jazz festival. They do ballroom dancing, and are members of two dinner dance clubs. Tom enjoys birding when he can find the time.