Thomas Richard Cannon

After a very brief and very steep decline in health caused by a metastasis of stomach cancer into his cerebrospinal fluid, Dr. Thomas R. Cannon (Tom) passed away in the company of family at the Hospice Solace Center May 30, 2024.

Born April 20, 1945 to Howard & Pauline Bumgarner Cannon, Tom grew up in the Guilford College community in Greensboro and earned both his BA and DDS from UNC-Chapel Hill.

During his third year of dental school, Tom was introduced to Scottie (Katharine Warren) on a blind date. It was love at first sight, and just four months later, they were married. In February of this year, they celebrated the 54th anniversary of that blind date.

After dental school, Tom and Scottie moved to Portland, Maine for him to work in a children’s dental clinic. They stayed four years, long enough for both their children to be born “Mainiacs”, and to make lifelong friends.

In 1976, Dr. Cannon established his dental practice in Black Mountain, where he took care of thousands of appreciative patients until his retirement in 2011. If a dentist can ever be beloved, Dr. Cannon was. He enjoyed bartering with artists, and some of his patients’ artwork still graces the Cannon home today.

Tom’s esteem as a dentist came not only from his skill with the drill, but also, and perhaps mostly, from his character. He was gentle, witty, generous, curious, humble, and committed to his people and his causes. Scottie says he literally loved when someone needed to be pulled out of a ditch, and friends and neighbors often recount stories of a time or way Tom helped them.

Tom’s lifelong interests included sailing (though any vessel that navigated on water floated his boat). He also loved tennis, building or fixing just about anything, learning, community service, travel, and the natural world. People who knew him in the ‘80s may remember Tom’s hobbies like stained glass, his early enthusiasm for computers, his community involvement in Carver Elementary, the Old Depot and the Black Mountain Pairing Project, or his pursuit of personal improvement in Toastmasters and Russian language learning. He was a quintessential hobbyist, and as he often said, a “jack of all trades and master of none”. 

In more recent years, and in some cases recent weeks, Tom was active in the Black Mountain Tennis Association, Kiwanis Club (as treasurer, and as the mastermind and chief technical assistant behind the computerized checkout system at the Kiwanis Thrift Shop), the Asheville Sailing Club, the board of the Donald S. Collins Early Learning Center (also as Treasurer), the Swannanoa Valley Museum of History’s rim hiking program, a book club and two active mens’ breakfast groups. 

He was also an environmentalist and a nature-lover, enjoying hiking, working in his yard, and adopting green technologies. Even in his death he wanted to go green, and will have a natural burial at Carolina Memorial Sanctuary in Mills River, NC.

Though conscious of the environmental impact, Tom loved to travel. He and Scottie had driven across the country as recently as 2021 for a belated 50th anniversary celebration with family in Montana, ‘stopping off’ to see friends in Maine on the way home. They had logged memorable trips to Russia, South Africa, Holland, Denmark, Greece, Mexico and more. Just last June, Tom drove back to Montana with his brother-in-law Allen and several others for a 10-day canoe camping trip on the Upper Missouri, and had wanted to go this year to the Galapagos, Chautauqua, and perhaps on a river cruise in Europe. While there will be no regrets about the way Tom lived his life or things he left undone, he would be sorry to have missed those trips and the adventures, learning, and extra time with loved ones they promised. 

Finally, Tom was an advocate for democracy and justice, working at the polls, and compassionately advancing Democratic (big D and little d) causes. When he began his cancer journey, he told everyone who wanted to help him that the best thing we could do would be get involved in the 2024 election to ensure democracy prevails. He would say the same today.

Tom is survived by his wife, Katharine (Scottie) Cannon; his children and their spouses, Katharine Cannon (Gretchen Mathison) of Durham and Eliot Cannon (Chelsea Cannon) of Boone; grandchildren Avery, Ethan, and Brianna; brother Robert Cannon (Vicky); in-laws Lucy Bennett, Betsy Warren and Allen Doty, Linda Cannon, and Bill and DeeDee Warren; and cousins, nieces, nephews and ‘made family’ too numerous to count. He was preceded in death by his parents and brother Bill Cannon.

A Celebration of Life for Tom will be held Wednesday, June 19th at 2:00 p.m. at Black Mountain Presbyterian Church.

In lieu of flowers, people wishing to honor Tom’s memory may make donations to:

The Kiwanis Club of Black Mountain Swannanoa Foundation

PO Box 491

Black Mountain, NC 28711

The Donald S. Collins Early Learning Center

120 West Street

Black Mountain, NC 28711

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