A Goodbye to Letters from the Berkshires

A note from Tom Lynch's family

All good things — and good people — come to an end.

We are sad to share that Thomas Chapman Lynch, whose “Letters from the Berkshires” you have enjoyed for almost five years, died on Saturday, September 27, after a short but hard-fought battle with metastatic bile duct cancer.

In late July, Tom was diagnosed with this relatively rare and incredibly aggressive cancer (which is thought to be more common among Vietnam veterans). Roughly six weeks later, his life ended in the Berkshire home he loved, surrounded by the people he loved.

Just this past spring, he was playing hours of tennis every day. He walked miles at a time. He played his guitar now and then (although Dupuytren’s contracture in his hands made that tough). In June, he was still writing thoughtful commentaries.

More than once, we said he would outlive us all. We were wrong.

Thank you to all of you for reading his posts, in which he shared his commitment to truth, compassion, and the rule of law, and for reaching out to him to share your thoughts. It meant the world to him.

To bring “Letters from the Berkshires” to a close, here is his obituary.

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Thomas C. Lynch, 1945–2025

Thomas Chapman Lynch, 79, formerly of Shirley, Massachusetts, died on September 27, 2025, surrounded by his family at his home in Becket, Massachusetts, after a short but hard-fought battle with metastatic bile duct cancer.

Tom was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, to Mary (Chapman) Lynch and Herbert Lynch. He graduated from St. James High School in Haverhill and from Saint John’s Seminary in Brighton in 1967. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and became a Captain in the Airborne Rangers — leading a team of soldiers in Vietnam for two years without losing a single member — and was awarded a Bronze Star. After his military service, Tom became Director of Safety for the Army in New England.

Tom’s proudest professional accomplishment was leading the fight to make it safer for children to travel in cars. From 1977 to 1980, he co-chaired the Massachusetts Governor’s Task Force on Child Passenger Safety. He invented a crash impact simulator that he took around the Commonwealth to demonstrate what happens to children in accidents when they are improperly restrained. Tom drafted the Massachusetts child restraint law, the nation’s first, which later became a model for other states.

Tom was an entrepreneur and co-founded Lynch, Ryan & Associates, Inc., a worker’s compensation consulting firm, which developed programs making it possible for employees to return to work after injuries, an approach copied nationwide. Tom later created Workers Comp Insider, an award-winning insurance blog. He continued the blog after semi-retirement and, in 2021, merged it into a Substack column, “Letters from the Berkshires.” A voracious reader of history and politics, Tom wrote about what could be learned from the past and applied to the frightening times in which we live. He was extremely proud that readership grew to 12,000.

Tom was a classically trained baritone and for years was a familiar sight on Central Massachusetts stages, performing leading roles for community and semiprofessional theaters. He made his professional classical debut at age 12 and for decades performed in a range of genres, from opera and cabaret to musicals and folk.

Tom served on or chaired a number of business and not-for-profit boards, including Commonwealth Care Alliance, Biomedical Research Models, and the Barton Center for Diabetes Education. He was a Trustee of Shirley’s Hazen Memorial Library and a member of the Board of Directors of the Indian Lake Association in Becket.

Tom leaves his wife of 24 years, Karen Ludington; his two daughters, Tammy Lynch and Melissa Lynch; his wonderful grandchildren, Christian and Michaela Hoffmann; four siblings: sister Eileen Canfield; sister Alana Jaques and her husband, Roland; brother Herbert Lynch and his wife, Susan; and brother James Lynch and his wife, Roberta Fish-Lynch; many cousins, nieces, nephews, and their children; and Tom and Karen’s goldendoodle, Lancelot.

Tom was predeceased by his parents and his dear first wife, Marilyn (Hayes) Lynch.

A celebration of Tom’s life is being planned for later in the fall.

Tom’s family asks that anyone who wants to honor his memory make a donation to a cause close to his heart: the Worcester Area Mission Society Children’s Book Drive (WAMS, 6 Institute Rd., Worcester, MA 01609, or wamsworks.org/donate).