Tom is serious about painting and photography
now that he is retired and an energy consultant.

How do you handle it if you are a direct descendant and namesake of one of the most famous figures in English history? You handle it very well if you are Thomas Cranmer of Great Falls, Virginia. His ancestor, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, established the Anglican Church under Henry VIII, and he has been, Tom says, “certainly an important influence in my doing what I think is right even though the consequences can be dire (he was burned at the stake)."

Tom has several famous ancestors, including the Harrisons of Revolutionary War fame and the 9th and 23rd Presidents of the United States, William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison, respectively. He is at ease with having all these prominent ancestors, possibly because Tom himself is an impressive, if modest, individual. He will tell you about himself, and his ancestors, if asked. But he has to be asked.

He has had a distinguished career as an oil company executive, a diplomat, an economist, a banker and an energy consultant, but now, at 70, he is primarily, as he puts it, "a dedicated student of oil and watercolor painting with a specialty in portraits.”

Tom's portrait of his aunt, Sylvia
McLaughlin, a 90th-birthday gift.

One subject of his portrait painting was another notable relative, his aunt, Sylvia McLaughlin. She was a co-founder in 1961 of the Save the San Francisco Bay Association, and was pictured at age 90 in the New York Times sitting in a tree with two other elderly women to protest a plan to cut down most of a stand of oaks to make way for an athletic center (“A Dose of Maturity for a California Protest,” by Jesse McKinley, January 23, 2007). Tom presented his portrait of her as a present at a party for her 90th birthday, an event attended by about 200 people.

Tom is also an avid and dedicated photographer, and had no hesitation in giving up film for digital photography. This writer can attest to just how indefatigable a photographer he is. On a recent cruise along the Danube, Tom was likely to be the last one on board after a shore visit, taking photographs until the last second, and beyond. On one occasion, the captain had to delay the ship’s departure for a few seconds–only for a few seconds, or Tom might have been left behind. In Vienna, other sightseers on the cruise were content to snap pictures from the ground of the famous tile roof of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, but Tom had previously managed to get a shot from above the roof while standing on scaffolding.

Portion of tile roof of St. Stephen's,
Vienna, taken from scaffold above.

Tom had a show in 2005, mostly of his photographs, at the Great Falls Library. An article in a local paper noted the widespread locales of his photographs and quoted praise for his work as “visually exciting and extremely well-crafted” (“Photographer’s Work Features Far-Flung Locales,” by Brian Trompeter, Sun Gazette, January 13, 2005). Tom works on the exposure and color balance of his images in Photoshop and controls the final presentations with varied printing papers.

In June 2007, Tom had a shot at some notoriety as an artist when two of his paintings were removed for reasons of propriety at a show at the McLean Government Center, in McLean, Virginia. The Center houses the offices of the administrative district of this older, upscale area of Fairfax County. At the time, Tom was in New Mexico for a “marathon” of three art workshops, one, in plein air (outdoors) art, in Santa Fe, and two others, in drawing and in watercolor, in Cloudcroft (population 800, altitude 9,000).

"Eternal Vigilance": Tom took this picture of a
bald eagle in a wildlife refuge in Jupiter, Florida.

One of the paintings by Tom that was removed from the exhibit at the McLean Center showed a young man from his bare chest up, and the other showed a young man clad only in skimpy undershorts, something like a Speedo, sitting in a straight chair at a table.

Tom was amused but also dismayed by this government censorship of his partially clothed portrait subjects. With this kind of thinking, he wondered, would Greek and Roman statues in museums need to be covered? Would religious paintings of partially clothed subjects by the great masters need to be painted over? In the McClean Government Center, at least, it would seem so.

More recently, Tom was on the job taking photographs at a party and auction raising money for a children’s cancer hospital. One of the items included in the auction was a painting to be done by Tom. The winning bid was $900, for a painting Tom will do of the winner’s daughter.

Thomas L. Cranmer was born in San Diego, California, and went to art school there when he was young. He says that his mother wanted him to be an artist, but Tom decided he would rather not be a “starving artist.” He opted for geology, which he studied at Yale University. He got his B.A. degree there, in 1960, in geology, engineering and political science. At Yale, Tom says, he was exposed to great art, as he was later in New York City, where he obtained an M.B.A. degree in Finance and Economics at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, in 1962.

Portrait by Tom of a friend of the
family, done in oil paint on canvas.

Geology and mountaineering provided Tom with the opportunity as a young man to take photographs in the Western mountains. In addition to mountaineering, Tom skis and sails and has engaged in many other outdoor sports.

After getting his M.B.A. degree, Tom worked for a bank and an investment company, and, from 1966-1970 he was a U.S. Foreign Service and Capital Development Officer in India. He followed this with almost thirty years with the then Mobil Corporation (now Exxon Mobil), where he served as a planner and economist for exploration, producing, and regional and marketing affiliates. His job required him to provide analyses of economic, political, legal, tax and foreign exchange risks for over 70 countries.

Since his early retirement from Mobil in 2000, Tom has worked as an energy consultant. He worked for a consulting firm under contracts with the U.S. Agency of International Development (A.I.D.) in Montenegro and Mongolia, in 2001-2002; for an overseas property bond management firm in Antigua in 2004; and for the U.S. State Department’s Iraq Reconstruction Management Organization, in Baghdad, in 2005-2006.

Tom had a presidential appointment as a founding director of the Albanian-American Enterprise Fund, as a volunteer, from 1995-2001, and was vice chairman of the U.S. Business Council for South East Europe from 1985-1995. He speaks French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and Farsi.

Another portrait by Tom, this one
with the title, "Girl With Vase."

He has studied oil painting with Michael Shane Neal, Rob Liberace, David Leffel, Barry McCuan, and Marcia Fouquet. He has studied watercolors with Susan Abbott, Judith Frechette Dougherty, Peter Humneniuk, Jane Angelhart and JoBeth Gilliam. He has studied drawing with David Barranti.

Tom and his wife have two grown sons, both married, and six grandchildren, including two boys. Neither of them is named Thomas.

To see some of Tom’s other work, including the two paintings banned from the McLean Art Center, click on www.enduringartphoto.smugmug.com.

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