Sadly, our Quaker community lost Tom Dudley Fennell when he contracted Covid in the hospital. Tom and Nancy spent many years in Fort Myers before moving to Sebring to be closer to their son. Although it was a distance, Tom and Nancy made the 2 hour one way trip on a frequent basis, and then worshipped with us virtually when we stopped meeting at the Calusa Nature Center.

Here is an overview of Tom’s life originally published as a blog.  

Had it not been for orchids, it is likely that Tom Dudley Fennell would not have been a doctor.

Tom was born on July 4^th. For years, he thought the July 4^th celebrations were for him. Because Tom’s father was employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Tom’s early years were spent in Florida, Haiti and Puerto Rico. After finishing 5^th grade, Tom and his brother had the opportunity to go to boarding school in Michigan. Cranbrook School had a great reputation. Tom found living in boarding school was easy if you behaved yourself, and he was raised to follow the rules. He loved this Episcopalian school and left it at graduation to enroll in Harvard University. Although he originally planned to be a teacher, he got interested in medicine, but there were no scholarships available and his family could not afford to send him to medical school.

Tom’s grandfather developed a business growing orchids. After buying 25 acres of land near Miami in 1923, he found the land was ideally suited to grow orchids. His orchid farm became a tourist attraction, called the Orchid Jungle. Phillip Wiley wrote an article about this farm, which was published in the Saturday Evening Post. The year before the article came out, the business grossed $50,000. The revenue increased to $500,000 after the article was published.

Orchid money sent Tom to Duke University Medical School. The draft was in effect when he graduated in 1957, and since there were no paid internships, Tom joined the Air Force.   The Air Force eventually stationed him in Washington DC, where he served as a general medical officer for three years at Andrews Air Force Base.

While completing his undergraduate education at Harvard, Tom met and married his first wife. They had three children. Tom’s wife developed a panic disorder early in their marriage. Her condition was not well understood in those days and treatment options were limited. She spent much of her time hospitalized; Tom’s mother pitched in to help with the children. Tom made the decision to end the marriage shortly after their third child was born addicted to the illegal medications that his wife took.

Transition to Psychiatry

“Diseases bored me but people did not”, he says to explain his growing interest in psychiatry. He completed additional training in psychiatry at the University of Miami, studying under a top notch faculty of psychiatrists. Many were physicians who fled from Cuba after Castro took over. Tom found that psychiatry was a great match for his desire to take care of people. He stayed on the clinical faculty of University of Miami for 25 years, while also setting up and running a psychiatric practice. He provided psychotherapy to patients, regardless of their ability to pay. “I was one of the few poor doctors”, he explained.  

Tom and Nancy met when she was working as a psychiatric aide at the University of Miami Psychiatric Institute. Nancy was divorced at the time and had an adopted a boy named Jeff. Nancy was working on gaining admission to graduate school to become a psychologist. The chief nursing administrator of the hospital, who was instrumental in guiding Tom as a psychiatric resident, asked Tom to supervise Nancy. Nancy’s life changed when she got admitted to Florida State University.

After Nancy moved to Tallahassee, Tom and Nancy started a long distance courtship. Nancy completed her 4 year program in 3 years. Her major professor insisted she be married before she did an internship; Nancy and Tom were too busy to plan their wedding. The professor’s secretary made all the arrangements for their wedding – Tom and Nancy just had to show up. They continued to live and practice in Florida.

Religious Beliefs

“I don’t want to go back to Sunday School”, Tom told his mother after his first experience at age 5. The uncharacteristically rebellious boy had no formal religious training until he was exposed to the Episcopalian Church in Haiti and in Michigan at Cranbrook. He found he liked the hymns and the music, but he started questioning some of the wording in the creeds. He omitted saying the parts he could not believe in until by the time he was a senior at Cranbrook, he could not agree with any of them.

At Harvard, Tom attended the Unitarian Church until he realized he could not endorse their support of some political issues. He became an agnostic.

Introduction to Quakerism

Nancy and Tom lived on 60 acres of forest in Highlands County. Nancy began attending Ft. Myers meeting and Tom joined her at a meeting for worship 6 months later. The first time he walked into Iona House, he felt an overwhelming powerful feeling that he had come home. He did not expect this. It was like a lightening bolt. He discovered that Quakers had no specific creed – he could sit and listen to God.

Tom found the Quaker values that resonated the most with him are integrity, community, peace and earth care. He got rid of his gun collection 4 years ago when he realized he could not shoot anyone.

“God opened doors for me.” Tom explained.  He used to think he was “just lucky” but he realized that his life was guided by more than luck. He wanted to care for people and God opened the doors so that he could.

Chris R is a New Yorker, although he has shed his Long Island accent. He was born in 1956 and grew up on the south shore of Long Island surrounded by boats and water sports. He had a motor boat by the time he was 12. “The 60’s were a wonderful time to grow up in the suburbs of New York”, he says. Chris grew up in an extended family; his German grandparents lived on their property in a converted garage. Chris is the youngest of three, with his sister Donna and his brother Chip.

The family attended the Episcopalian Church, but the family was not particularly religious. Chris’ mother made sure the kids went to church, but after they were confirmed, there was no pressure to continue to attend. His family were ardent Democrats who were liberal and antiwar, and worked in the Civil Rights movement.

Chris’ mother stayed home to raise the kids. She loved to garden and cook. She entered the work force after the children grew up and became an executive secretary in Manhattan. Chris’ father was a history teacher and a football coach who went on to earn his Doctorate. He taught at Baldwin High School. Chris attended that high school for a year before he transferred to an all-boys prep school in upstate New York called Millbrook. There he played football, and his team went undefeated his senior year, which is still a fond memory for him.

When Chris applied to colleges, he was delighted to get into Columbia University. After two years in the country, he was eager to move to New York City. At Columbia, he majored in Philosophy, and earned his Bachelor’s Degree in 1979. Chris also developed his artistic abilities in figure drawing and landscape painting.

After graduating from college, Chris married an artist and they moved to Munich, Germany where Chris worked as a silk screen designer for a T shirt company. After the business failed, Chris’ wife went to Berlin and he hitchhiked around Italy, where he lived for a while on a farm in Tuscany and picked grapes. (He denies ever stomping on grapes in a big barrel.)

When it was time to return to the U.S., Chris’ wife stayed behind and became a punk artist in Berlin. Chris moved to Seattle where he lived with friends in a classical music commune. When he returned to New York, his wife came from Germany, and Chris got a job teaching in a Catholic school in the Bronx. This Catholic school was run by Marist Brothers who believe you should teach where the need is greatest. Chris is very grateful that he learned the craft of teaching from these good men.

After his marriage fell apart, Chris moved to San Francisco. There were no teaching jobs available, so he worked in a restaurant and worked his way from being a bus boy to a respected waiter in an upscale restaurant. He went through a divorce and his wife later contracted and died from AIDs associated with IV drug use.

Chris decided to move to Sarasota where his parents lived; he simultaneously worked in a restaurant and studied for a teaching degree. After work one night, he was intrigued by an ad for the Army that not only promised to help you be all you can be but to give you college money as well. So, he joined the US Army Infantry for 2 years with the condition that he wanted to be posted in Germany. He loved Germany and drove a Bradley in the Desert Storm war in Iraq. Since the Army gave Chris most weekends off, he bought a car and had a great time traveling around Europe.

Chris returned to Florida and used his college money to get a teaching certificate. He got a job with an ex Navy Seal in a school that combined academics with windsurfing and kayaking. This was his introduction to the sports, and he ran a kayak shop in Port Charlotte while taking classes for his teaching degree. He met Vicki S in these college years.

Next, Chris taught in a prep school in Sarasota where he noticed the sharp contrast between the spoiled kids who talked back and the military where people obeyed orders. He admits that this sometimes made him angry. He decided to seek out the Quakers because he knew that they had a peace testimony and that perhaps they could help him to deal with conflict in a loving and peaceful way.

Around this time Chris discovered the Baha’i religion and got deeply involved with their community. While he still loves the theory of the faith, he found their method of worship to be quite boring. He then met a woman who had been teaching in China, who put him in touch with a Baha’i recruiter for international schools. So, Chris investigated that and moved to China for two years to teach 4th grade Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean kids in a special international school.

Chris returned to Florida, started painting again, and got into substitute teaching, which he says he loved. He says, “I got pretty good at it. Although it was not well paid, it was great fun and it gave me lots of freedom and a fine quality of life.” He also had an opportunity to live in Giverny, France for 2 summers to focus on his plen air landscape painting.

Chris retired from teaching at age 61. He is currently living at his sister’s house with her husband and his mother. He wants to get more involved in discussing Quaker theology and practice. He knew within the first 15 minutes of his first Quaker meeting that this form of worship was a perfect fit for him. He loves the spiritual power of the unprogrammed meeting: “I believe that it is an ideal way to approach God, to love Him, to worship Him, and to serve His Noble Cause.”