Thomas V. Rafferty ’48


Thomas V. Rafferty ’48 died from cancer on August 12, 2012, in Marietta, Georgia. Tom graduated from the Boston Latin School, joined the Navy V-12 in March 1944 and was assigned to Dartmouth. He was discharged as an ensign in August 1946 and completed his A.B. in psychology at Dartmouth, where he was a member of the Psychology Club. He then embarked on a long and distinguished career as a community activist fighting against racial and economic inequality in the Deep South. In the late 1980s he was southeastern regional manager in Atlanta for the National Alliance of Business (NAB) dealing with the inadequacy of American high school education in providing the necessary background training for new jobs being created in American industry. He was in the forefront of NAB’s effort to center national attention on the developing mismatch between workforce needs and readiness. In the 1990s he continued doing public relations work out of his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, under cover of his company, Tota Concepts Inc. He was also responsible for the successful expansion of Mervyns stores in south Florida. He remembered working on the hospital ship Project Hope when it went to Vietnam and South America, and also the two years he spent sailing around the Caribbean in his own boat with his wife and their two small children. Tom was preceded in death by his son Tommy and granddaughter Lindsay. He is survived by his wife, Patti; children Jerry and wife Sue, Kathy and husband Guy, John and wife Lynn, Sharon, Paula, and Lisa and husband Paul; as well as grandchildren Justin and wife Brook, Katelyn, Ronnie, Kassie, Brittany, Matt, Andrew and Lauren.