Thomas "Tom" Weller
2020-12-06The 1967 Buchtel High School graduate who considered seminary school before studying sociology and psychology at the University of Akron took a winding path of work and faith that lifted spirits from Akron to Appalachia to the harder streets of Phoenix.
In Akron, he worked straight out of college helping the less fortunate find housing. In Phoenix, he co-founded Solomon's Porch, a church “for sinners and saints,” opened a preschool and started an awning business while coaching softball. Before that, he moved to Colorado and then Arizona as a mortgage lender until he could no longer be a part of denying home loans to families in need. Nancy questions whether he ever had a drinking problem. He often imbibed no more than a glass of wine a night and could stop any time, she said. Nonetheless, he quit alcohol altogether because it held him back from serving others.
Weller kept his heart open to all. He connected with the hopeless. He never gave up on anyone and he always listened. Even some who disagreed with his progressive politics say they rarely doubted his intentions or ever stayed mad at him.
He fed and clothed the homeless, counseled people into addiction treatment and was a loving inspiration to other religious leaders, including some in the LGBTQ community. Waiting until 2014 to become an ordained pastor, he questioned the institution of religion at moments in life but his faith in God and humanity endured.
“He’s a people guy. He’s a hands-on, an I-want-to-help kind of guy,” his wife Nancy said as if he was still here. “You need your home repaired? I’ll do that. If you need to talk to someone about your soul, I’ll listen. Very selfless.”
Nancy now lives with Higgins and Pacin', Weller's Dauchshund and restless terrier mix — and a closet full of Hawaiian shirts. Long-haired, smiling, music-loving and mustached, “Father Tom” sported either a priest’s collar or those flower-print short-sleeve shirts he started wearing for comfort in the Arizona heat.
“I’ve know him since we were knee high to grasshoppers and I can’t remember anyone not liking him,” said his wife, who attended Firestone High School before finishing school in Cincinnati. Her parents played bridge with Tom’s parents. Their families went to the same Akron church.
Apart for 30 years, Nancy said she was inexplicably moved to find Weller one day. After a year on the phone, she visited him in Arizona and the two married in 2007.
Weller’s first marriage was to a Catholic woman. Her priest “was livid” that Weller wanted a Presbyterian wedding, Nancy recalled. Marrying a Catholic would also cost him his admission at a conservative Christian college in Pennsylvania.
The experiences complicated his view of the church. So he took up mortgage lending, a move that still confuses Nancy. She never got an explanation as to why a man who couldn’t balance a checkbook would enter the private loan industry.
He returned often to Akron, connecting with childhood friends who donated to the charitable causes he championed out west. His outreach, which included the co-founding of a network of progressive ministers called the Convergent Christian Communion in 2014 and mission work under his Good Shepherd Ministries, brought even ministers closer to God.
“He had that light inside of him and that goofy smile. I felt a connection immediately,” the Rev. John Christopher of Good Shepherd of the Hills Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh said of his first meeting with "Father Tom" 12 years ago.
“I learned a lot from Tom. He had an innate ability to not only connect with anybody, but when you were talking to Tom, he made you feel like you were the most important person in the world," Christopher said in an emotional video tribute on Facebook.
“I thought that I had some God-given talents and abilities and motivations to serve ‘the least of these,’ as we say,” said Christopher. “But Tom taught me a whole new world. He was so dedicated and just would not give up on anyone.”
“He was a giant in faith,” said the Rev. Kenny von Folmar, lead pastor at Solomon’s Porch, the church Weller co-founded. “He never met a stranger.”
“I had left ministry in 2006,” Folmar said in a Facebook message. “But Tom poked and prodded me back into ministry. So, I am who and where I am because of him!”
Weller led an effort to feed 150 homeless people every winter holiday season. On his street, neighbors in the LGBTQ community found comfort in his presence.
“I met him here on Facebook, about 5 years ago,” the Rev. Mother Jennifer Jones-Sale of West Virginia said of finding Weller’s words shared by a mutual friend from Akron.
“His comment was very positive and full of unconditional love and acceptance,” Jones-Sale remembered. “I felt an instant connection due to his hippie vibes, and he reminded me of my mother, who was very socially conscious, and passed on when I was 11. We began to chat casually, and as we began to get closer, he told me to feel free to reach out to him if I ever needed a listening ear.”
“He championed our causes, which usually resulted in him putting his neck out for women, the LGBTQIA community, and racial and social minorities,” Jones-Sale.
Weller loved music with deep lyrics. He kept them like scripture. When she thinks of Weller, Jones-Sale can’t help but hear James Taylor singing "You've Got A Friend."
Remembrances of Weller can be viewed and placed on his Facebook page at
. A GoFundMe account to support his wife is at https://bit.ly/3nwARwE. When final, service details will be posted at http://www.solomonsporchphx.com.
. A GoFundMe account to support his wife is at https://bit.ly/3nwARwE. When final, service details will be posted at http://www.solomonsporchphx.com.
Reach Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3792.