Town of Wallkill residents and officials gathered at Godwin Road on Monday, August 5 to memorialize an extraordinary resident: Thomas F. Nosworthy Jr., a former town supervisor and veteran who dedicated most of his life to his community and country through military service, government work, and historic preservation. Godwin Road, where Nosworthy previously lived, will share the former supervisor’s name moving forward, a testament to his impact on the town.

“We knew that Tom’s health wasn’t doing well, so me and my staff came up with this idea a month ago,” said Wallkill Supervisor George Serrano. “From serving on the planning board to the town board, Tom was here when the town began growing. He’s unselfishly given so much to the town, so we wanted the town to give back to him.”

Nosworthy was born in New York City on May 10, 1940, and grew up in Bronxville for eight years. He and his family moved to Orange County in 1948 and he attended school in Middletown; during the summer, he worked as a hay farmer, a soda jerk, and a busboy for Mitchel Inn. Nosworthy, during his sophomore year, joined the U.S. Navy Reserves in 1957 and graduated from high school in 1959.

Nosworthy served in the military during the Cold War in 1960, patrolling the Pacific Ocean under NORAD, or the North American Aerospace Defense Command, for two years. In 1962, he became a telephone installer for Bell Telephone in San Francisco, then a teletype operator for GTE-Sylvania for the next two years. In 1965, Nosworthy transferred from GTE-Sylvania to the Orange County Telephone Company and worked as a lineman, installer, switchboard maintainer, and engineer for 30 years. During this period, he took night classes for seven years and graduated from Orange County Community College with an AAS in Electrical Technology.

Starting in the 1970s, Nosworthy got involved in the Town of Wallkill’s government and served in various positions for a few decades. He was first appointed to the planning board in 1972, serving 16 years, then was elected to the town board in 1988, serving nine years as a councilman. Following Former Supervisor Howard Mills’ resignation, the town board appointed Nosworthy as a supervisor in 1999, and residents elected him for the position in 2000. He officially retired from the town government in September 2001.

Beyond the boards, Nosworthy retired from OC Telephone Company in 1992 and worked as a school bus driver and instructor. After retiring from bussing in 2013, he and his wife Cheri bought a trailer and took on an ambitious journey: a 100,000-mile trip across the United States for the next five years. During his travels, they visited eight presidential libraries, 30 national parks, and many other historical locations. After returning to Wallkill, the town named Nosworthy as a historian assistant in 2019, and then the town historian in 2022.

“Tom was instrumental in Wallkill as the town historian and historian assistant. We have a rich history that many people don’t know about, and he helped showcase that,” Serrano said. “He played a big part in Wallkill’s 250th anniversary celebration, explaining why streets or places were named the way they were. He always studying and passing information along.”

Flash forward to August 5 and the former supervisor’s name can be seen proudly displayed under the Godwin Road sign. Several residents and officials later visited Nosworthy at the Highland Rehabilitation & Nursing Home, and surprised him with a video of the sign’s installation and a replica of the sign for him to keep, showing how much the community cares about him and his contributions to the town.