Syracuse funeral director who created
nationwide disaster team dies

February 18, 2003

By Sue Weibezahl
Staff writer

SYRACUSE – Thomas Shepardson, a longtime area funeral director and creator of a national disaster response team, died early this morning after an apparent heart attack.
Shepardson, 59, had returned at 11 p.m. Monday from attending a funeral in Nashville, Tenn. He was out plowing the parking lot of his funeral home at 1217 N. Salina St. in Syracuse at about 1 a.m. to get ready for funerals Wednesday morning.

A witness told police it appeared Shepardson lost control of the truck and might be ill. Rescue workers tried to revive him at the scene, but he was pronounced dead about a half hour later at St. Joseph's Hospital, said Syracuse police Sgt. Tom Connellan.

"This is a man who spent his whole life working to help everyone," said Gary Moore, deputy director of the federal Office of Emergency Response. "He worked himself to death, and I'm afraid I mean that literally, which has us all heartbroken."

Shepardson, a lifelong resident of Syracuse, owned and operated two funeral homes: Frasier-Shepardson at the Salina Street address and Goddard-Crandall-Shepardson at 3111 James St., said his son, Chris, who also is a funeral director.

He created a disaster response team for Onondaga County in the early 1980s to collect and identify bodies in the event of a large-scale disaster.

Although his services were never needed locally in that regard, the plan gained the attention of state officials, who recruited Shepardson to develop a similar plan for New York.

That led to his creating a plan for the nation that has since mobilized teams to send to the World Trade Center site after the terrorist attacks, Oklahoma City following the bombing of the federal building, the Korea Air 801 crash in Guam and flood zones in Hardin, Mo.

"He is the father of D-MORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Rescue Team)," Moore said. "He was a one-man show who brought so much energy and commitment to this that it now involves about 5,000 people nation-wide and made him known all around the world."

"Dignity and respect for the dead, especially in very tragic circumstances, was what mattered so much to him," Chris Shepardson said. "Whether it was a fingernail or a full person, he wanted to make sure that person was treated with dignity."

Tom Shepardson "dealt with things you and I would never witness or experience and probably would never want to, but he got through them all with extreme sensitivity and team-building that helped everyone understand things a little better," said John Marsellus, owner of Marsellus Casket and a friend of Shepardson's for nearly 40 years.

Shepardson was a graduate of St. Vincent de Paul High School and Simmons School of Mortuary Science. Survivors include his wife of 37 years, Jacqueline; daughter Laura; and sons Peter and Christopher.

Calling hours will be 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Frasier-Shepardson funeral home, 1217 N. Salina St., and 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at Blessed Sacrament Church, 3127 James St. The service will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the church and burial will be in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Thomas J. Shepardson Scholarship Fund, c/o Blessed Sacrament Church, 3127 James St., Syracuse.