ANDREWS - Thomas Chester Andrews, F.A.A.R. April 30, 1961 - July 18, 2001

Tom Andrews joined his brother, John, in Heaven on July 18, 2001, after battling thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), a rare but deadly blood disorder.

Born in Charleston, W. Va., on April 30, 1961, he attended public schools, graduating from George Washington High School in 1979, President of his class of 400. At age 11, he broke the world record for handclapping for which he was listed in the 1974 Guinness Book of World Records. Tom attended and graduated summa cum laud from Hope College, Holland, MI, in 1984, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Mortar Board. While there, Professor Jack Ridi enabled him to discover his talent for creative writing, especially of poetry. During his senior year at Hope, Tom attended Oberlin College, interning with David Young and Stuart Friebert of Field Magazine. He received an MFA in creative Writing from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, in 1987, where he was the recipient of a Hoyns Fellowship. He taught Creative Writing at Ohio University, Athens, 1990-1996. After a sabbatical to write Codeine Diary, he became a Professor of creative Writing at Purdue University. West Lafayette, IN, where he received tenure. In 1999, he became a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (F.A.A.R.), being awarded the Rome Fellowship in Literature for 1999-2000 by the American Academy Of Arts and Letters, living at the Academy's facilities in Rome that year. He was a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient for the year 2001-2002. He also taught Creative Writing at the graduate level at Warren Wilson University, Asheville, NC.

He is survived by his parents, Ray and Alice Andrews of Grand Rapids, MI; his grandmother, Juanita Andrews of Holland, MI; his Fiancée, Alice B. Paterakis, of Athens, Greece (July 12 was to be their wedding date), and his former wife, Carrie Garlinghouse Andrews, of Holland, MI. In addition to many poems, essays and articles in a variety of books, anthologies and other publications, including many on motorcycles (he was a lifelong enthusiast), he authored several books of poetry, including Hymning the Kanawha (Haw River Books, Ltd. 1989), The Brother's Country (Persea Books 1990), winner of the National Poetry Series in 1989, The Hemophiliac's Motorcycle (University of Iowa press 1994), winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize in 1994. In 1996-1997, he wrote Codeine Diary (Little, Brown & Co. 1998; paperback edition by Harcourt Brace 1999), a memoir of his experiences as a hemophiliac. Three of his poems were included in The Best American Poetry 1994 (Charles Scribner's Sons 1994) and another appeared in A Year in Poetry (Crown Publishers, Inc.1995). Tom edited On William Stafford: The Worth of Local Things (University of Michigan Press 1993) and The Point Where All Things Meet (Oberlin College Press 1995), essays on the poet and his mentor Charles Wright.

A Memorial Service for Tom will be held August 2 at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1100 Lake Drive, SE, beginning at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions be made payable to Trinity UMC for the Personal Energy Transportation (P.E.T.) project of the United Methodist Committee On Relief (UMCOR), providing 3-wheeled hand powered bicycles for victims of land mines and for others who need them. Burial will be at Kirkland Cemetery near Point Pleasant, WV, on August 6 at 2:00pm.