I am convinced his spirit is moving toward the light and know you will keep him in your thoughts.

Thank you for your support over the past difficult year and a half. We had such wonderful experiences during that time in Santa Fe, New York, and San Francisco with the Deep Listeners and those experiences are helping Tom on his journey.

Love,
Harvey Lehtman

Tom Dougherty died Thursday July 13, at his home in Los Altos, California from a brain tumor. He was 38 years old.

He graduated from Lewis & Clark College in 1984 and received his doctorate in Cognitive Psychology from the Claremont Graduate School in 1993. He was a Computer Human Interaction consultant, principally employed by the Interval Research Corporation, from 1995 through 1998. From 1992 to 1995 he was an Interaction Designer and Usability Specialist at Taligent, Inc. Tom was also an accomplished musician and composer. He attended several of Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening retreats in New Mexico. He performed with Pauline and other Deep Listeners at Mills College, at UC Berkeley, and in New Mexico.

He leaves his partner of nine years, Harvey Lehtman, of Los Altos, CA; his mother, Nancy Atkinson, of Rhododendron, OR; and his brother, Douglas C. Dougherty of Gearhart, OR.

Some pictures of Tom have been posted by friends of his at the following web site: http://www.apresmidi.net/tompictures.html.

Tom created three online Deep Listening Newsletters:
  Winter, 1995
  Winter/Spring, 1996
  Winter, 1997

Goodbye Tom
our dancer
our french singer
our choir conductor

Tom
we will miss your voice
out there in the
Sangre de Cristo Mountains

I will miss
your laughter

I wish you
a
safe
and
smooth
journey
into
the
other
realms

the galaxies
are greeting!

Margrit

Timpanicly, truthfully, truly sincerely,
your friend,
Kim

Spoke to Harvey and Tom
today. Tom was able to respond
with a hi (his old California hi!
which was a special gift as H. 
had just told me
not to expect any response)
and then I was left
with the intensity of his
listening over 
the Atlantic Ocean
and into outer space
while I attempted 
to express what he means
to me over the ocean
and back into outer space and
down into his precious,
shell-like, galaxy-like ear. 
Harvey eased this
along with his compassionate
voice responding to help
verbalize the flow between 
Tom and me.(T. is smiling,
he is kissing the phone, he
is moving his eyebrow, etc.)
Harvey told me they
had had a wonderful year
together.

I will never forget
Tom's dance solo in
my Rose Mtn. opera
"Signs and Wonders."
He reminded me of 
the great Nijinsky, the
Tartar eyes and the 
otherworldly 
consciousness so 
I described what I 
imagined him doing
and with the totality 
of a Nijinsky and
a Tom Dougherty
he danced with just 
a little silk scarf of
Heloise's tied around
him artfully and danced
before our closed eyes
until the signal to open
them.  When
people saw him in his 
magnificence there was
an uproar of laughter
which I had not expected
at all. I felt a bit 
misunderstood and confused
but everyone seemed
happy, especially Tom
so I went with it.
The piece was called
"Dance Nijinsky, Dance!"
In my mind Tom
will always be a dancer.

Love, Abbie

 

Dear DLears,

Yesterday an extraordinary
thing happened. During a
session of brainstorming
by perusing through various 
editions of Dante's
 _Divine Comedy_,
Bill was leafing through
a large book of reproductions
of renaissance paintings
and frescoes of images
from the third part of
the "Commedia" entitled,
Paradiso.  As he leafed
through an idea came to him:

He asked me what
the name of the chapel 
was in Santa Fe with
"the miraculous staircase"
and said that we should 
perform our piece
"Music for the End
of Time" there in
memory of Tom 
Dougherty.  

I said I thought it was 
a great idea. Bill continued 
looking at the book
and toward the end,
stuck between the pages,
were a few 3"X5" index cards. 
On top was a picture postcard
of the "Miraculous Staircase."
Bill  was astounded and
said, "Look at this!"  We thought 
it quite a coincidence and 
chatted about it.

After a moment Bill wanted to 
continue looking at the book.
He started to move the index 
cards and was shocked again.
The top index card said:

"'Dance Nijinsky, Dance.'
for Tom Dougherty."

It was my long lost 
score to Tom's piece.
Needless to say I was
stunned to tears and 
so deeply moved I felt
almost transparent.

After a while we noticed 
these cards
were in the book at
a full page copy of a 
fresco from "Paradiso" 
depicting
"A woman clothed
with the sun"  which is
the final movement of
"Music for the End of Time." 

Love, Abbie

listen

dominique

Tom is in a hospital bed in a back bedroom that overlooks their garden and patio. There is an altar with a large vase of sunflowers, some quartz, a card of Buddha's face, and a picture of Tom with Pauline. It is very peaceful, with sounds of a quiet fountain and occasionally a wind chime (that Harvey said is tuned to Pauline's specifications.). It was a blessing to enter such a calm, sacred space, and an honor to offer sounds to Tom. The simplest sounds felt the best. It is at times like this that I am deeply happy to be able to play music.

As Harvey said, it is day by day now.

Nancy

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