Thomas J. Hamilton

PARIS, Tenn. — Thomas J. Hamilton, 93, of Paris, Tenn., died on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, at West Tennessee Healthcare- Volunteer Hospital in Martin, Tenn.

Dr. Hamilton was born in Brooklyn, NY, on July 31, 1932. 

He was married for 64 years to his beloved wife, Lorraine, who survives of Paris. He is also survived by his sister-in-law, Charlotte Hamilton of New York; several nieces and nephews; grand-nieces and grandnephews; and great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews.

Dr. Hamilton was preceded in death by his mother, Margaret Hildemann Hamilton; father, Thomas J. Hamilton; sister, Anne Marie Carney; and brother, John F. Hamilton.

Dr. Hamilton received degrees from four different universities: Saint John's (B.A. History), City College of New York (M.A. Romance Languages), Hunter College (M.A. Classics), and the University of Virginia (PH. D. Medieval Studies).

He subsequently was an assistant professor at the University of Virginia and Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. For many years he was also a leading expert on the Anglo-Saxon hagiography of the eleventh century. His writings on the subject are held by major American Universities and by European Libraries in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

After a decade of teaching, Dr. Hamilton became interested in the administration of Christian colleges. He studied Managerial Planning (Michigan State) and then served successively as Administrative Vice President of Kendall College, President of Nazareth College, President of the College of Saint Teresa, and President of the Jamestown University Foundation. While at Jamestown, he organized and developed scholarship endowments worth over 40 million dollars. Jamestown granted him an honorary degree as Doctor of Humane Letters in 2007. He worked at Bethel College in McKenzie.

Dr. Hamilton was also vitally interested in the religious education of teenagers. He served as a volunteer religion teacher of high school seniors for almost 50 years. His motto was Hebrews 12:1. He thought that verse captured the ideas that it was a struggle for young persons to become rooted in faith, that adults who wanted to share in their effort to become rooted should be non-dogmatic, and that the entire church community had to support the young adults by its example. Great idea and it even worked sometimes.

He was a member of Holy Cross Catholic Church. He served on the committee that secured funding for Holy Family Hall, was the first chair of the Holy Cross Catholic Pre-School board, worked with the group that introduced the Life Teen program to Holy Cross and was a member of the team that designed and secured funding for the parish's Memorial Garden. In 2009, he received the Angel of the Catholic School Award for his service to Catholic education in the Diocese of Memphis

Ridgeway Funeral Home, 201 Dunlap Street, Paris, TN, 38242, is handling the arrangements. His remains are to be cremated with a memorial visitation to be held on Saturday, July 25, 2026, at Holy Cross Catholic Church from 9:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. with a Rosary Service to begin at 10:30 a.m.

A Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated at 11:00 a.m. at Holy Cross Catholic Church on Saturday, July 25, 2026. At a later date, burial will be at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Holy Cross Youth Group, 1210 East Wood Street, Paris, TN 38242.