"You're not from around here". That's what he would always hear as soon as he spoke to someone he had just met. That slow, clear southern drawl of his was almost a beacon compared to the New England chatter around him. Their next question would always be where he was from. To which he would reply "Just south of Kittery." Always. Every time.
For those of you who don't know, Kittery is the southernmost city in Maine - right on the border between ME and NH. Tim would love to watch their reactions as they tried to figure him out. Of course, he wasn't lying. Powder Springs, GA is south of Kittery. Just some 19 or 20 hours of driving, that's all. They'd both get a chuckle once they caught up to his dry humor.
Tim was a bit of a renaissance man - a true entrepreneur. He owned his first business in his late teens, a pizza restaurant in his hometown, and was just starting a new food concession business when he passed. He never worked with wood at all until he moved up north to Maine with me and began to learn from my father.
After a bit of trial and error, he finished up our basement. Then he started to play. Dad gave him loads of live-edge wood, with the rough edges of the bark still on. He soon made some trays, some frames and moved on to larger pieces such as furniture. Within a few years he had become well known in the area for his work and freely showed others how to master the live edge look. His pieces are scattered in homes and camps throughout New England.
He passed unexpectedly in June of 2019 from heart disease, something we didn't even know he had. As luck would have it, he passed exactly 2 weeks after my father. I'd like to think they're still together somewhere working up something.
