SOUTHWICK – It is with great sadness that the family of Thomas Frank Bamford (1951-2024) announce his passing on December 22nd, 2024 at the age of 73 following a long illness. The son of the late Vincent and Katherine Bamford, Tom was born in Buffalo, New York in 1951 and moved with his family to Natick in 1954. He attended Natick High School where he was always proud to have become captain of the hockey team, leading it to many wins. He loved hockey and continued playing it on teams as an adult.
Upon graduation from Natick High in 1969, he attended Boston State College, which later merged with UMass Boston, graduating with a degree in business in 1973. The next year he married the love of his life, Paula Connolly, who graduated from Framingham State College and became a teacher. In 1983 they built a beautiful house in a wooded area of Southwick and opened the Bamford Insurance Agency in Westfield which he ran for many decades, often with the help of Paula and his father, Vince, who had been an executive with Liberty Mutual Insurance Company in Boston. Then in 1991 they adopted Christina, their daughter, soon after her birth. Tom and Paula loved spending afternoons watching her play on her high school soccer team and later at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Sadly, Paula passed away after a long illness in 2013 and Tom always treasured the many years they were together. Since then, he stayed in close touch with his many friends, some of whom had been with him for more than half a century.
He is survived by his daughter Christina of Southwick; his sister-in-law Rita Connolly of Southwick; and his brother James of Washington, DC, who greatly admired Tom for the enormous strength, courage, and dignity he displayed in fighting his last battle.
Please join us in celebrating Tom’s life at a memorial service at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 4th, 2025, at the Firtion-Adams Funeral Home, 76 Broad Street, Westfield, MA. Visiting hours will precede the memorial service from 1-3 p.m. in the funeral home. For directions please see: https://www.firtionadams.com/. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice and Palliative Care Federation of MA at their website www.hospicefed.org, or by mail to 20 Commercial Drive, Suite One, Wrentham, MA 02093.
