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Tribute to Tom Regnier

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Tom Regnier, 2014 SOF Conference, Madison WI

Sadly, I must take pen to paper, so to speak, and write about a great friend of all of us.

As has become widely known in our community through our many social media and other outlets, Tom Regnier passed away from COVID-19 on April 14, 2020.

Tom's death is a great loss for me personally, as well as for the Oxfordian world in general.

In 2013, Tom Regnier was instrumental, along with John Hamill, in uniting the Shakespeare Fellowship and the Shakespeare Oxford Society into the current Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship, and served for four very productive years as its president from 2014-2018.

His work as chair of the communications committee of the SOF, during that time, and continuing after he left the SOF board, has — along with many other hard working people — resulted in a great website and robust social media outreach. Tom has been, in many ways, the face of the SOF.

Tom was active in doing research and published many papers in Oxfordian newsletters and other media outlets. He presented many papers at our national conferences, as well as in many other speaking engagements at theater groups, universities, and other venues. We regret the loss of future great work from Tom.

In the words of John Hamill, current president of the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship, “Tom was truly a Renaissance man. He was a lawyer, actor, researcher, presenter, lover of Shakespeare/Oxford, and much more.”

On a personal note, I counted Tom as a great friend. In addition to collaborating on plans for the future of the SOF while he and I served on the Board together, we had many communications on countless topics — not only Shakespeare, although that was an important subject for us.

In addition to seeing Tom every year at the annual conferences of the SOF and its predecessor organizations, I always made a point of visiting with Tom as his home in Florida every year for over seven years, whenever I was there to visit my family and other friends.

Yes, Tom was truly special. It will certainly be hard to carry on without him as one of the “towering figures of our movement” in the words of Wally Hurst, but I know we must do so.

I can only be comforted with the knowledge that at last Tom knows the truth about the origins of the Shakespeare canon, a truth we should, with Tom's example, continue to pursue for ourselves.

"Now cracks a noble heart. Goodnight sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing you to your rest"
Hamlet, Act V

Rest in peace, Tom.

With great sadness,
Richard Joyrich

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