| Graduation Year | Class of 1951 |
| Date of Passing | Nov 27, 2013 |
| About | Thomas O. Cartmel, 80 of Westfield, formerly of Carmel, passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013. He was born September 10, 1933 in Rushville, IN. Tom graduated in 1951 from Rushville High School and was president of his class. He attended Purdue University and Hanover College but was interrupted by an army tour in South Korea. He then returned from military service to get a teaching degree from Ball State. He taught school while obtaining his law degree at Indiana University. He practiced law for many years in the Carmel area. He was also national officer for his fraternity Phi Delta Theta as well as being a chapter advisor for the fraternity in Indiana. Tom was also a trustee for the Palmer fund for Phi Delta Theta and traveled to various chapters around the Country. Tom is survived by a large and loving family. His survivors include his wife Barbara of 43 years: his children Tom Cartmel (Anne), Cindy Saba (Ron), Donna Justice (Gregg), Deb Marquardt (Jack), Diane Rapp (Murray),Kevin Schroepfer (Lauren), Todd Cartmel (Eva), Tyler Cartmel (Jessica), Travis Cartmel (Lauren): his grandchildren Timothy and Caroline Cartmel: Andrew, Emily and Katie Saba: Sean and Nicole Justice: Alex (Ashley) and Kristen Malone: Cooper, Kylie and Payton Rapp: Brooke and Blake Schroepfer: Natalie Cartmel: Tucker and Kinsey Cartmel: Olivia Cartmel: his brother Jerry (Dianne) Cartmel, niece Julie Cartmel, nephews Scott, David and Patrick Cartmel. Life Story & Eulogy We cannot thank everyone enough for your love & support. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and caring friends in our lives. The past few days have been tough, and we wouldn't have been able to make it through it without you. When the three of us got together to prepare a Eulogy for our Dad, we didn't know if we'd be able to emotionally handle it. After all, how can one sum up the life of such a wonderful and loving man in 10 minutes? The task seemed almost insurmountable. As a result, we want this to be a celebration of his life. A summation of some of our fondest memories of him and many of the things and people he loved so much: Instead of trying to tell the story of Dad chronologically from the beginning, I think it's told best by showing how growing up in Rushville, IN really set the stage for Dad's journey through life in many different ways. Growing up, Dad's dad, Oliver, worked for the Rushville Newspaper. This would have an immense impact on Dad throughout his entire life. The definition of a newspaper is: "A printed publication (usually issued daily or weekly) consisting of folded unstapled sheets and containing news, feature articles, advertisements, and correspondence." As you'll see, however, a seemingly simple thing as a newspaper truly shaped & molded Dad even from the very beginning. He literally even learned how to read by reading the newspaper every morning. This, of course, led to him racing to get the morning's Rushville newspaper to see the most recent New York Yankees box score. This habit followed him his entire life. He positively loved the Yankees and would always keep us informed of the final score of the most recent game. He didn't just love the Yankees, however. He loved baseball itself. We'd take him every summer to an Indianapolis Indians game, and you could tell it made his summer every time. He'd sit there with his hotdog, popcorn, and beer and you could just tell he was in heaven especially being with "his boys" as he'd call us. Growing up, Dad wasn't just into baseball but was very much into anything to do with sports. He'd always tell us how he used to be as skinny as a rail and would have endless energy playing basketball all day. He even actually attended the famous Milan Miracle game against Muncie Central at Hinkle Fieldhouse in 1954 which inspired the iconic movie "Hoosiers." He carried this love of sports with him throughout his entire life and would follow any and every sport in the newspaper. However, he was constantly the most proud of Carmel sports…even the obscure ones. He couldn't wait to tell us about the recent article he had read about Carmel girls' soccer or boys' swimming…he even kept a running tally of how many state championships Carmel was up to and wasn't shy about sharing it with anyone! Dad loved people in general and could strike up a conversation with just about anyone. We'd go out to dinner together, and by the time the dinner was over, he'd know the waiter's first & last name, where he came from, and how long he worked there. Not only could he start a conversation with anyone: There wasn't one conversation topic you could ever bring up that he didn't know at least a little bit about. I would sit there and ask him: "Dad, how the heck do you know about that?!" His resounding answer that I can still here in my head right now was always: "Because I read!!!" Dad was without a doubt the smartest man I've ever met. He was even a very proud member of Mensa which consists of the most intelligent people in the world having an IQ in the 98th percentile. This fact couldn't be demonstrated better than when watching Dad complete the morning newspaper crossword. This is no understatement. He literally would completely finish the puzzle in 20 minutes, which I've never seen anyone be able to do. If there wasn't an answer he knew, he would research and study the answer the next day. His thirst for knowledge was insatiable, and I think this is a quality we can all learn from him. He also loved using his smarts during the difficult card game, Bridge. Even until the day he died, Dad loved Bridge more than any other pastime. He would call me at night eager to tell us that he placed 2nd or won bridge today…and who can forget about the stack of bridge magazines he always kept in the bathroom growing up! You see. Dad was an academic from the very beginning. Even attending one college wasn't enough for him. He had to attend 4! He started out at Purdue University and then Hanover College before being interrupted by serving in the Korean War…and then subsequently finishing up his undergraduate degree in Education at Ball State before attending IN University to obtain his law degree at night while teaching during the day. This shows how Dad not only loved to learn but also loved to teach people…something he undoubtedly got from Grandma Mimi. He was always encouraging us with our academics – particularly grammar. Dad wasn't your prototypical father who would take you into the backyard to teach you how to throw a curve ball or fix a car. He took pride in helping with our homework or teaching us proper English. Our central family phone was always in the kitchen, and every time we would answer the phone: "This is him," you could hear dad in the background emphatically uttering: "This is he!!" him's not here and him doesn't do anything!" Also, we would be talking and ask dad, "where's that at?" Again, very vehemently respond, "right before the at! You don't end a sentence with a preposition!" Likewise, before a big paper would be due for school, I'd finish it and keep it out for him to review and edit early the next morning. I'd wake up to red squiggly marks (& it always had to be a red pen mind you) all over the paper. I would then proceed to argue with him, which I would ultimately lose of course because the paper would come back from the teacher with very few corrections and a good grade. Teaching was even his contribution during the Korean War where he taught English to a family in South Korea and played the French horn in the army band. Ah yes. Dad loved the French Horn. Whether it was live or on TV, Dad would always stop and say, "oh boy – you hear those French horns!?" He also loved the Manhattan Transfer, Carpenters, and Signature Sound. Dad wouldn't always wear his religious beliefs on his sleeve, but his way of worshiping would always come out in the form of music – particularly Signature Sound which is a Christian melody group. He loved listening to their CD's or seeing them live at Anderson University. Dad always knew what he wanted and went after it. For example, he and my mom met back in July 1970 and were married November of that same year. They only knew each other for a few months before he asked her to marry him…to which mom replied "which year?" That's what was so great about Dad. He loved family so much. He was a father to Tommy and Cindy, our mom was already a mother to Debbie, Donna, Diane, & Kevin but they loved children and family so much they added the three of us! This of course made us not the Brady Bunch but the "Cartmel Bunch." He was also extremely proud to have 18 grandchildren and loved bragging on them to anyone he met. With so many kids and grandkids of course, Dad was always looking for ways to save money on groceries. This led to one of Dad's other favorite pastimes…couponing. On any given Sunday, you could find him parked at the kitchen table diligently sifting through hundreds of coupons, throwing out old ones, cutting new ones, assorting, organizing etc. He literally would have multiple foot-long boxes all filled with coupons. The fun didn't end there, though. The real fun began at the grocery store. Armed with a couple hundred coupons we would make our way to the grocery store where it became a game to get the coupon from Dad and find the related product in the right aisle as quickly as possible. O'Malia's, Kroger, & Marsh were no match for Dad on triple coupon day. At Christmas time, we'd walk out of the grocery with $500 worth of groceries to feed 9 kids on the famous Audubon Dr. family Christmas Eve and only spend $150!! Likewise, some of our greatest family memories were always during our large family Christmases. One of the things all of us loved growing up before the tradition was passed along to the 18 grandchildren was the anticipated annual Christmas Treasure Hunt. Dad would diligently spend the entire Christmas morning preparing clue upon clue that consisted of a poem or riddle which were hidden around the house and then led to another clue before arriving at the final Christmas gift/treasure at the end. As you could probably guess, however, he didn't make it easy on us. His clues were tough, so we'd have to constantly go back to him to glean some type of verbal clue to help us figure it out. You could tell, though, how much joy it brought him to be part of it. Growing up in Rushville, Dad truly grew up a country boy. You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy. His favorite time of year was always going back to Rushville for the annual Patterson family reunion on the farm. He was truly in his element and couldn't be happier…and of course going back home with 15 years of fresh handpicked corn on the cob was the cherry on top…oh and he loved Cherry pie too…or any pie for that matter! If any of you've ever eaten a meal with Dad (especially steak), you automatically know he'd take 5 minutes to chew one bite. He'd sit there and close his eyes while basking in its flavor and then wash it down of course with his favorite beer - Molson. This is the way he was in life in general. He was never in a hurry and always enjoyed every minute of every day especially when family was around. Dad was a leader and entrepreneur from the very beginning whether it was being president of his senior class at Rushville high school, leader within his fraternity (Phi Delta Theta) at Hanover, Phi Delt alumni chapter advisor & national officer, running a campaign with the Republican Party, owning apartment buildings, owning a trucking company, or running his own law practice. As you can see, plain and simple, Dad was one of the hardest workers you've ever met. He'd deliver newspapers for 4 hours in the middle of the morning, and then attend to his law practice all day simply to make ends meet for such a large family. Also, even if it was a Saturday, he'd still be sure to make time to attend every minute of one of our basketball or baseball games even after being dead tired from the night before. The only thing I possibly admired more than Dad's work ethic was his unbridled eternal optimism. Nothing kept him down…absolutely nothing. A real funny story occurred within the past couple years after he had another surgery. There was talk about having to possibly take his right foot or part of his leg, and the conversation about not being able to drive came up. Dad, without hesitation, proclaimed: "I'll just drive with my left foot then." To that, my wife Lauren said: "Did you just say what I think you said?" Then, Dad responded with a coy smile but you could tell he was being serious. That sums it up perfectly. His determination & ambition were unrelenting. You could not keep him down. Until the day he died, he still talked about getting a part time job, buying a hybrid car, or the next big "business deal" (which the most recent one was greenhouse farming by the way). It is this quality that I admired most about my Dad, and I think we can all learn a lot from him. It's ironic we're telling the story of Dad's life because Dad himself was always a storyteller and a joke teller...and sometimes telling stories that were jokes! (it was often hard to tell!) I remember thinking when I was younger that Dad had a story for everything. Dad was 49 when I was born and in his mid to upper 50s during some of my firs t memories of him. By that time, he had seen and done so much. Over dinner, he'd tell us stories about growing up with Uncle Jerry and his cousins; stories about Mimi & his Dad; stories about taking the train with Jerry all the way to New York to visit their Uncle Howard; stories about his first drink on the banks of the Ohio River at Hanover; stories about the Korean war; stories about meeting Mom & raising the older kids; and stories about his travels throughout the country. He actually traveled to every U.S. state with the exception of Hawaii. During all his travels, however, he was none prouder then when we went to Cartmel, England with Uncle Jerry & Aunt Dianne when I was in 8th grade. Dad was a huge history and family genealogy buff. He truly believed in knowing where one comes from is important. He was so proud to be a Cartmel, and loved every minute while we were over there. *There're actually a few pictures I found from that trip, and they're on the bulletin boards over there. Speaking to Dad: We stand here before our earthly father who is now an angel in Heaven sitting side by side with our Heavenly father. We stand here to say how proud we are to be Cartmels and to be "your boys." We will likewise make sure to teach our children were they come from and all about their Grandpa Tom including all of your stories. You'd always tell us you have "ground to scratch & eggs to hatch." You weren't happy sitting idly. Your mind was always working…always thinking of your next chapter & adventure. Now that you're up in Heaven you are born anew to start your eternal life…and you can have that steak or 2nd beer without anyone "hounding" you telling you it's bad for your health. We will never forget you. We love you, and you will always been in our hearts and part of our souls…until we meet again… |
