Talbot
Fancher “Tab” Hamlin of Ipswich, formerly of Wellesley, died
Wednesday, June 4, 2008, after a brief illness. A textbook editor
with a lifelong love of books, words and music, he was 90 years old.
The
son of architect Talbot Faulkner Hamlin and Hilda Edwards Hamlin,
Tab was born May 18, 1918, in New York City, where he and his twin
brother Wilfrid attended the Horace Mann School and the Dalton
School. During the mid-1920s, he spent several boyhood years living
in Paris, France, with his mother and brothers, attending Ecole
Alsacienne and spending summers in Dieppe, Le Pouldu and Barbizon.
In 1931, they moved to
Northampton,
where Tab graduated from
Northampton
High
School in 1936; they spent summers in Christmas Cove,
Maine,
at Juniper Knoll, the family cottage to which Tab returned for
visits throughout his life.
Tab
enrolled at
Middlebury
College in Vermont, graduating with a French major in 1940. As an
undergraduate, he was involved in theater and glee club, writing for
“The Campus” and assisting with the college carillon which he
especially enjoyed. At “Midd,” he developed an enduring affection
for the College and for
Vermont,
and met his lifelong love, Allison Sanford of
Hastings-on-Hudson,
NY. Marrying Allison in 1942 was, he said, “the best thing I ever
did.”
After
two years as secretary for the Vermont Symphony, Tab spent 16 years
with the Johnson O’Connor Human Engineering Laboratory in Boston,
eventually becoming head of the
Boston
office. In 1960, he found his true calling as an editor. During 23
years with the Allyn and Bacon textbook publishing company, he
edited numerous social studies, math and reading series for the
elementary/high school division. From 1983 to 1990, he was an editor
for Addison Wesley, focusing on English as a second language (ESL)
texts. He officially retired in 1990, but his meticulous and
thoughtful editing kept him active as a freelance professional with
Heinle & Heinle and Oxford University Press until two years before
his death.
Tab
was a Boston area resident for more than six decades, including
eight years in Auburndale and 48 years on Shadow Lane in Wellesley.
He moved to Ipswich in 2005 where he was lovingly embraced by, and
became an active member of, his nephew’s family, the Hamlins: Sam
and Eve and their children, Nick and Ali.
Tab’s
wife, Allison, died in June 2000 and his younger brother, Norman,
died this past October. His twin brother, Wilfrid, survives in South
Bend, IN. He also is remembered fondly by his two nieces, two
nephews, sister-in-law Barbara, and their extended families.
A
private memorial service will take place June 22. Arrangements by
the Whittier-Porter Funeral Home of Ipswich. The family suggests
memorial tributes be made to Middlebury College, Gift
Administration Office, Old Courthouse, 5 Court Street, 5370
Middlebury College,
Middlebury, VT 05753
to maintain the carillon whose pealing bells Tab liked so well.
