UPDATE 2 (Tuesday, Jan. 22, 5:00 p.m.): Ann Fish, the great-daughter-in-law of Thomas Fish, provided more detail about the head bust and the man in a phone conversation. She echoed all of the details below, and added that to this day Mr. Fish still has decedents who attend Sachem Schools.
He and his wife lived in a house at Five Corners and he used to bicycle to work at the Lake Ronkonkoma School before it burned down. Gatelot Elementary was built shortly after as a substitute and eventual home for those students affected by the fire. Upon moving some equipment into Gatelot in 1946, Mr. Fish suffered from a stroke and died.
According to Ann Fish, the head bust was originally at Gatelot upon the request of Mr. Walter Dunham, the Superintendent of Schools at Sachem. After sitting in Gatelot’s main office for a number of years it was donated to the Lake Ronkonkoma Historical Society before landing at District Office in Holbrook and eventually back in Lake Ronkonkoma at Samoset at the new District Office.
There were originally five Fish brothers who came from Leeds in the United Kingdom. Thomas settled on Long Island, while one brother went to Canada, and another went to Australia. He and his wife both had sons who fought in World War I and World War II, including their son Joe Fish, who in his 40’s was the oldest draftee to come from Lake Ronkonkoma, according to Ann Fish.
Ann Fish and her husband settled in Lake Ronkonkoma in 1959 and had four sons who went to Sachem – Charlie, Tom, Rich, and Patrick and many of their children attended Sachem Schools as well, including Rich Fish, a student at Sachem North on the football and wrestling teams, who is the last of the group to go through the system. Rich, if you’re counting, is Thomas Fish’s great-great-great grandson. Amazing.
As for the head bust, Ann Fish said it belongs in Sachem.
“It belongs in the place that he loved the most,” she said. “He loved the schools and the kids and his community.”
UPDATE 1 (Friday, Jan. 18, 1:30 p.m.): Well that didn’t take long. Someone from Sachem’s District Office was able to provide a complete rundown of Mr. Fish and his career. Here’s what we know ..
There was an article printed in the Patchogue-Advance about Mr. Fish on Sunday, June 1, 1980. It tells the story of a thoughtful man who looked after not only his school building, but also its occupants.
At the time of the dedication in 1980, a bust of Mr. Fish was donated to the Sachem School District. It was housed at the Lake Ronkonkoma Historical Society before it was decided that Fish return to Sachem.
It turns out, Mr. Fish was an Ex-Chief of the Lake Ronkonkoma Fire Department, a board trustee at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and a native of the United Kingdom where he served in the British Navy before coming to America and serving as the caretake of the O’Connor lakeshore estate and a school custodian.
The Advance article was titled, “School district to celebrate legend of its ‘Uncle Tom'”:
“Thomas Fish, who became a legend in his time at Lake Ronkonkoma where he spent most of his 79 years, will be memorialized tomorrow in a program being held as part of the 25th anniversary of the Sachem Central School District.
“Uncle Tom,” as he was familiarly known, never served the Sachem District, but for more than 30 years had played a vital role in the old Lake Ronkonkoma Elementary School before it was absorbed into Sachem.
He was a school custodian who took care of structure and grounds but he also looked upon the 100-plus small fry attending the school as his charges.
He was ahead of his time in a few respects. For example, long before the nation became aware of nutrition for school children, he prepared hot food for the children each noon when they gathered in the basement for lunch. Three days a week, it was soup. Cocoa, the two other days.
His lunchroom thoughtfulness inspired the following parody on the song, “School Days,” at a time when a familiar expression in the automobile trade was “Body by Fisher”:
School days, school days, Dear old soup-and-bowl days; At mid-day we children would rush in a group; Down to the basement to have our soup; To home it once more is our fondest wish, We all agree that it was delish; That soup had a body built by Mr. Fish, And it had vitamins A, B and D.
A family man, he and his wife raised six children, four of whom are living. They are Thomas, Edward and Joseph, all of Lake Ronkonkoma, and Mrs. Mabel Meyer of Bayport. Much of his family’s food came from the sizable garden and the chicken coop he maintained at his home on Gatelot Avenue near the school.
Gas conservation would have meant nothing to him, as he depended entirely on a bicycle for transportation.
Besides his school work and family responsibilities, Uncle Tom’s activities belied his age. He served for 35 years as chief of the Ronkonkoma Volunteer Fire Department. He also held one of the longest records of service as a trustee of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, where he was also senior usher.
He was born near Lewis, in Suffolk County, England, served in the British Navy and came to Lake Ronkonkoma as caretaker on the old O’Connor lakeshore estate.
He died in1946 while moving desks in the Lake Grove School, which was being used as temporary classrooms for Lake Ronkonkoma’s schoolchildren after the four-room hall of learning where he had served was destroyed by arson. The blaze is said to have broken his heart.
As a school custodian, Uncle Tom worked for a very small salary. Old-timers recall that at some annual school district meetings, if a pay raise of $100 a year was suggested for Tom, some tight-fisted taxpayers invariable “raised hell about such lavish spending.” But whether or not the raise was approved, it had no affect on Uncle Tom’s conscientiousness at school.
ORIGINAL STORY: This is no secret or some dusty treasure in a back room. In fact, the head bust I’m about to explain was in plain sight on a shelf in a conference room in Sachem’s District Office at Samoset Middle School.
Thomas Fish is forever ingrained in Sachem history thanks to the folks who decided to make a head bust in his honor.
According to the name plate, Thomas W. Fish was the head custodian at the Lake Ronkonkoma School from 1913-1946.
It is still unclear why Fish has a head bust, when it was dedicated and if there are any specific stories related to him and his years of service. Sachem Central School District, of course, was officially formed in 1955, so Fish never formally worked for Sachem Schools.
If there is anyone out there who is related or knows of Thomas Fish, please contact me directly to share more information. Email CVaccaro@Sachem.edu.
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro