Thomas "Tom" H. Hamilton

My husband, my father, my grandfather and a dear friend, Thomas Harrison Hamilton, 88, entered the eternal realms to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the early morning hours on Tuesday, November 24, 2020 at his residence in Dunnellon. He was born into this earthly life on September 21, 1932 in Raleigh, North Carolina and was the son to the late Leroy Hamilton and Annie Alice Harrison Hamilton. Tom grew up in Cary, NC and enlisted in the US Navy in 1950 following high school. He served primarily overseas and during the Korean Conflict. After his military service, Tom moved to Miami and worked for Pan-Am Airlines. One day Tom saw an advertisement for different ministries at a Baptist church in the north end of town, so he attended a worship service there and met his wife, Sandra.  They married in 1959. As his faith grew in the Lord, Tom heard a calling to the ministry and shortly thereafter enrolled in Seminary at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, MO. As an ordained minister the Lord led Tom to TN, IN, and then FL - Miami, Orlando, Homestead and Ft. Lauderdale.  In1992 Tom and his wife Sandra made their home in Dunnellon to take care of her mother. Tom became active at First Baptist Church in Dunnellon as a Deacon and Sunday school teacher and very active in Christian education with Dunnellon Christian Academy. He operated the Texaco Gas Station in Dunnellon, Holder and on highway 200 in Ocala. He had an adventurous spirit, leading him to go on gator egg hunts, bob sled at an Olympic facility, join a mission trip to Thailand in his 70s and play church softball into his late 60s.  He loved his family and friends dearly and will be greatly missed. Tom is now enjoying God’s presence and one day we will be able to enjoy his company again in that celestial city, what eye has not seen and ear has not heard and what has not entered the human heart what God has prepared for those who love him.

He is preceded in death by two sisters and one brother.

He leaves behind his wife of sixty one years, Sandra M. Hamilton, Dunnellon, FL; his daughters, Bethany Drum (David), Fairfax Station, VA and Rebekah Rowan, Ellicott City, MD; his brothers, Bobby Hamilton, Cary, NC, Sam Hamilton, Raleigh, NC and Wesley Hamilton, Atlanta, GA; his sister, Betsy Branch, Cary, NC; his grandchildren, Nathan Drum (Mary), Seth Drum, Dara Sigsbee (Morgan), Sam Rowan and Gabby Rowan.