Thomas F. Kotch, a long-time Middletown resident, passed away on Thursday, April 2, 2020. He was born in Elmira, New York, on September 3, 1921. In many ways, Tom was a quintessential representative of what Tom Brokaw called the "Greatest Generation". An 8th Army Air Corps navigator during the war, he returned to start a family and became a skilled machinist, helping to build today's America.

In addition to being an accomplished accordionist, Tom was an avid outdoorsman and gun enthusiast, who loved hunting deer with his brothers; fishing, even ice-fishing, with or without company; boating on the Connecticut River; and gardening in his own backyard. A marvel to all who knew him in his later years, he chopped his own firewood well into his 90's.