“Tom Welch is an affable guy; a person who greets you with a smile, kind word and genuine interest in what you have to say.” (CSEA News, January, 2000).

26 years later, those words still describe Tom Welch.

For anyone who has spent time around CSEA, especially Council 400 Retirees, Tom is more than a familiar face. He is the person who shows up. He is the person who makes the call. He is the person who remembers your town, your chapter, your family, your story and the thing you mentioned once in passing. He is the person who turns a union membership conversation into something much deeper: a reminder that none of us are supposed to get through this life alone.

Tom spent about 30 years working in state service, including with people with disabilities at what was then DMR, now DDS. He worked at Mansfield Training School before transferring to Mystic and later to a state-run group home, where he spent many years before retiring. His career was rooted in care work, but for Tom, care was never just a job description. It was, and still is, how he moves through the world.

After retirement, Tom stayed active in the union. He served as vice president of his chapter alongside Patrice Peterson and remained deeply connected to CSEA. For the last two decades, he has helped bring retirees into Council 400, one phone call and one conversation at a time.

He does not approach the work like a script. He does not rush through a list. He talks to people. He asks where they are from. He asks whether they have questions. He explains what the union does, why it matters and what it means to be part of something that is still there for you after retirement.

“One of my obligations to a retiree, if they’re not a member, is to go through and have a conversation,” Tom said. “What we do, what we’re for.”

That conversation often starts with the basics: the CSEA News, chapter meetings, retiree benefits and the issues CSEA can help members navigate. But with Tom, the conversation rarely stays basic for long. Someone mentions a town, and Tom knows someone there. Someone mentions a family name, and Tom remembers delivering Meals on Wheels to their mother. Someone is unsure, and Tom gives them the time they need to ask questions.

That is how Tom organizes. Not by pushing people, but by finding the human connection that was already there.

“For this job, you have to be able to have a conversation,” Tom said. “Or start one.”

Over the years, Tom has signed up countless retirees. He does not know the number, but those around him estimate it is easily in the thousands. On one recent day, he signed up seven new members. But to Tom, the number is not the point.

“It’s not just signing a blue card,” he said.

To Tom, that blue card means someone is connected. It means they will receive the paper. It means they are invited to chapter meetings anywhere in the state. It means that if they have a problem with health care, insurance, a doctor, their pension or anything else that comes up in retirement, they are not facing it by themselves.

“I feel if I get somebody a member, that down the road, that has just helped them out through the union,” Tom said.

That belief has guided Tom through his entire life. He talks often about helping people because that is what he believes we are here to do. He has helped co-workers, retirees, friends, neighbors and people who simply needed someone to listen. He has been the person others call when they do not know where else to turn.

“My life centers around, really, who can I help?” Tom said.

For Tom, union work is not separate from that. It is part of the same lifelong commitment. It is about checking on people. It is about making sure retirees know they still have a place to go. It is about making sure the people who gave their working lives to public service are not forgotten once they leave the workplace.

“The part of the job that I love most is I get involved with a person who has spent X amount of years and retired,” Tom said. “They may have an issue and be afraid to talk.”

That is where Tom steps in.

He listens. He reassures. He explains. He connects people to CSEA. And, most importantly, he makes people feel like they matter.

At a time when so much of the world feels rushed, transactional and disconnected, Tom’s approach is almost radical in its simplicity. He believes in picking up the phone. He believes in remembering people. He believes in showing up without needing credit. He believes love is not just something we say to family, but something we practice through respect, care and responsibility for one another.

“My life is giving,” Tom said. “And I just enjoy it.”

That spirit is what has made Tom such a powerful part of CSEA’s retiree organizing. He reminds us that the union is not only built at the bargaining table or in the halls of the Capitol. It is also built in the quiet, consistent work of calling a retiree who may not know what the union can still do for them. It is built when one member tells another, “You still belong here.” It is built when someone like Tom refuses to let people fall through the cracks.

Thirty years ago, someone saw Tom clearly: kind, generous and always ready to lend a hand.

Today, CSEA members know that is still exactly who he is.