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Thomas J. Huber

Thomas James Huber, 58, of Rainbow Lake passed away on Feb. 11, 2021. He is, and always will be, deeply loved and missed.

Tom was born in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, on Feb. 11, 1963, where he grew up working on the family dairy farm while attending Sacred Heart Academy. He earned his BS and MA in psychology from Central Michigan University and University of West Georgia, respectively. For 29 years he helped countless students succeed in college under the federally funded TRiO Student Support Services program at Hazard Community College, Southwestern Michigan College and Paul Smith’s College. He was a healer and a giver. In Michigan, Tom volunteered for 15 years as a hospice bereavement counselor.

He shared a passion for the outdoors and mushroom hunting with his daughter Hannah, a love of learning and literature with his daughter Ivy, and a love of songbirds and dachshunds with his wife Holly. Whenever the family was together, Tom enjoyed playing Yahtzee, Sequence and gin rummy around the kitchen table.

Tom was a perpetual student and teacher of life. In addition to his work with TRiO, Tom created many lasting relationships with students through teaching, volunteering with the Paul Smith’s College snowshoe racing team and advising the Adirondack Mycology Club. Always promoting mycology education, he organized the ADK Fungi Fest, mushroom log cultivation workshops, a fungi-infused microbrewing (“mycobrewing”) competition, and backyard parties with mushroom pizza baked in the earth oven he built with friends and family. As an adjunct professor, Tom taught many self-developed courses such as “Mushrooms of the Adirondacks,” “Hobbit Farmers and Hippie Houses,” and courses exploring his most ardent interest, transpersonal psychology. Tom reintroduced a Permaculture Design certificate program to Paul Smith’s College, and organized several charter bus trips to take students and community members from throughout the North Country to Washington, D.C., and New York City for environmental justice marches.

He was a voracious reader and writer, and shared his knowledge firsthand on cordwood building and slip-form stone masonry. He built several cordwood structures including a beautiful cabin on acreage he called “Cedar Eden” in Potsdam — a place for watching fireflies and bobolinks, playing free-range bocce, and sharing stories around the bonfire.

Tom is survived by his wife Holly (Green) of Rainbow Lake; daughters Hannah and Ivy Huber and Ivy’s partner Ryan Murray, all of Syracuse; brother Jay (Brenda) Huber of Mount Pleasant, Michigan; sister Sue (Mike) Beaver of Grand Haven, Michigan; twin brother Timothy (William J. Mann) Huber of Provincetown, Massachusetts; brother-in-law Jerel Konwinski of Mount Pleasant; nieces Jamie Huber of Mount Pleasant, Jenn (Jake) Parker of St. Johns, Michigan, and Emily Beaver of Grand Haven; nephews Matthew (Malia Douglas) Beaver of Seattle, Washington, and Tom (Katie) Beaver of Royal Oak, Michigan; and grandnephew Landon Parker of St. Johns. He is also survived by Holly’s mother Bev Kneale of Jamesville; sisters Anne (Rick) Nassar of Manlius and Joan (Dave) Sutherland of Hector; nephew and niece Paul and Kelly Nassar of Falls Church, Virginia; and niece Cara Nassar of Phoenix, Arizona.

He was predeceased by his parents Anna Marie (Fox) and Duane Huber, sister Carol Konwinski, stepfather-in-law Don Kneale, and beloved dachshunds Ruby and Sidney.

A celebration of Tom’s life will be held at a future date. In his memory, consider donating to the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University (https://www.columbia-lyme.org/make-gift), subscribing to his favorite literary periodical, The Sun (https://www.thesunmagazine.org), or growing a garden.