Died December 16, 2007
College: Trumbull
Widow: Mrs. Thomas Ellsworth
Address Not Available
Children: Martha Hope, 1954; Thomas Ellsworth, 1956; Linda Hope, 1959; Karen, 1964; Laura, 1967
Tom lived in Trumbull College for three years. He lived with David Shiman, David Brewster, and Ed Casey. Tom had a deep and abiding love of ships and the sea. He wrote his Scholar-of the House project on the U.S. Merchant Marine and graduated summa cum laude. After Yale, he devoted most of his life after college to service in the U.S. Navy. As a Commissioned Ensign, he served tours on the picket ship USS Investigator, radar station ship USS Protector, and destroyer USS Mahan. He was an intelligence advisor in Vietnam, Assistant Naval Attaché in Moscow, and Deputy Director of Intelligence, U.S. European Command Center. He also served as an Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence for Soviet studies. Over the years, he had been awarded the Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, and Navy Achievement Medal.
After serving in the Navy for 30 years and retiring in 1992, Tom, an expert in the history of merchant shipping, joined Booz Allen Hamilton as a national security advisor.
His survivors include his wife of 26 years, Adele Bemus Ellsworth of Alexandria; two children from his first marriage, Thomas Ellsworth III of Raleigh, N.C., and Laura Ellsworth of Los Angeles; three stepdaughters, Marti Hope Gonzales of Minneapolis, Linda Hope of San Francisco and Karen Hope of Baltimore; and two granddaughters.
I remember one day in Trumbull when he reported that if one drove across the Mystic Bridge in Connecticut at a certain speed (26 mph) that the noise sounded just like the Queen Elizabeth. Such was his love of ships.
—by David Shiman,
Obituary:
Captain Thomas B. Ellsworth, Jr., 68, retired Naval Officer and business executive, died from respiratory failure on December 16, 2007 at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, VA. Captain Ellsworth was born in Norwalk. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale University in 1961 and in 1984 attended George Washington University where he received a Master�s Degree in Public Administration. In 1962 Captain Ellsworth attended the U. S. Naval Officer Candidate School and was commissioned an Ensign in the U. S. Naval Reserve. He saw tours of duty on USS Investigator, USS Protector, and the USS Mahan. Captain Ellsworth was designated a Restricted Line (Intelligence) Officer in 1970, at which time he reported to Naval Reconnaissance and Technical Support Center in Suitland, Maryland. Captain Ellsworth�s subsequent intelligence assignments included duty as an intelligence advisor with the Naval Advisory Group, Vietnam; Assistant U. S. Naval AttachT, Moscow; duty on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, U. S. Naval Forces Europe in London; Commander Second Fleet staff; and as Assistant for Intelligence Plot in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Captain Ellsworth served as the Deputy Director of Intelligence, United States European Command (Stuttgart, Germany) from 1986 – 1989, and retired in September 1992 as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence for Soviet Studies. A recognized expert in the history of merchant shipping, Captain Ellsworth was employed by Booze-Allen-Hamilton as a National Security Advisor. Captain Ellsworth was married to the former Adele Bemus of San Antonio, Texas. He is survived by sister Dr. Rev. Lida Ellsworth of Bakewell, Derbyshire (U.K.), son Thomas Ellsworth, III, of Raleigh, NC, and daughter Laura Ellsworth of Los Angeles, CA, by step-daughters Marti Hope Gonzales of Minneapolis, MN, Linda Hope, of San Francisco, CA, and Karen Hope, of Baltimore, MD, and by grand-daughters Caitlin Hume and Ericka Hume, also of Baltimore, MD.