Thomas Caraker
‘Mayor of the B&A Trail’ had a passion for bicycling, a hobby he credited with helping him battle health issues
Thomas H. Caraker III, known in the Anne Arundel County cycling community for his passion for the Baltimore & Annapolis trail, died Dec. 9 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 84.
Mr. Caraker had a few nicknames in his home community: Crackerbox Tom, Tomboy, Trailblazer Tom. But the nickname he embraced most was “Mayor of the B&A Trail.”
He credited the trail — a path of about 13 miles that follows the route of the old Annapolis and Baltimore Short Line — with saving his life.
After suffering from multiple strokes and being diagnosed with Type II diabetes in 2000, he took his bike out of the shed of his Glen Burnie home and hit the trail. He said squeezing the hand brakes brought back tingling, then full feeling in his hands.
“I was so slow then, roller bladders passed me by,” he said last year in an article in The Capital. “It was four years before I felt comfortable riding.”
His speed and endurance improved. Through biking he lost 30 pounds and was able to control his diabetes without medication.
In his 80s, he was riding about 100 miles every three days.
If Mr. Caraker was the trail’s mayor, Big Bean coffee shop, located along the trail in Severna Park, was his office. He could be found at the shop almost every day drinking black coffee and wearing his neon green riding vest. He’d hold court on the back patio or move to the shop’s front window in bad weather. He’d water the flowers and say hello to anyone who passed on the trail.
“He’d say, ‘I might not know their name, but I know them,’ ” said Mellisa Stauffer, a local resident who Mr. Caraker recruited to join Trailblazers, a volunteer patrol group of goodwill ambassadors on the B&A.
“He had a passion for the trail and what he could do to help other people,” said a daughter, Cynthia Byrd of Mount Joy, Pa. “My dad believed the trail could bring so many people together.”
Thomas Herty Caraker III was born in Philadelphia, according to his published obituary, and was the son of Thomas Herty Caraker Jr. and his wife Rosalyn. He was raised in Pennsylvania, and later graduated high school from Georgia Military College in Milledgeville, Ga.
In 1957 he married Nancy Irene Zimmerman.
He served in the Army from 1957 to 1959 before starting a career with the grocery chain A&P Tea Co. He worked at A&P for almost four decades before retiring in 1996 to spend time with his wife. She died in 2014 after battling colon cancer.
Rod Reddish, owner of the Pedal Pushers bike shop, also in Severna Park, said that when Mr. Caraker started riding, he made Mr. Reddish part of his family.
“He’s been a father figure to me forever,” he said.
Mr. Reddish recalled meeting Mr. Caraker when he came into his shop with a problem: He’d been chatting with someone at a parking area, forgot to load his bike and backed over it in his car.
“His wheels were totally pretzeled,” Mr. Reddish said with a laugh. “They were like tacos.”
After he fixed the wheels, he sold Mr. Caraker a bike — he later ran over that one, too.
Mr. Reddish has a stack of Christmas cards he received from Mr. Caraker over the years — including one signed: “Ride free.” He said he could hear Mr. Caraker yell that motto to people on the trail all the time.
One of Caraker’s riding partners, Larry Warner, recalled riding with Caraker through bad weather and bad health. “We rode every weekend. We’d be out there in the snow and rain,” he said. “Even when he was sick, he made it a point to ride.”
Mr. Warner said that even through cancer treatments, Mr. Caraker still got on his bike. Sometimes he could only ride a few miles, but he never gave up.
At the Lifeline 100 ride in Millersville in October, Mr. Caraker completed 26 miles. His last ride was about three weeks before his death.
“He did a lot for people. He would help them out and fix their bikes. He would sit and explain to people from out-of-town how to get to this place and that place,” Warner said. “He treated everybody with respect.”
In a gathering at the Big Bean shop last Monday, friends and family packed the front of the shop and shared memories of Mr. Caraker.
“He pushed me to ride,” said Roger Johnson, 64. He said he met Mr. Caraker a year and a half ago. Since then, he had cycled more than 8,500 miles. “God bless him for getting me riding.”
Mr. Caraker enjoyed boating and fishing, and was a member of Pasadena United Methodist Church, according to his obituary.
Visitation will be 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Barranco & Sons Funeral Home, 495 Ritchie Highway, Severna Park. A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Pasadena United Methodist Church, 61 Ritchie Highway, Pasadena.
Interment will follow at Maryland Veterans Cemetery in Crownsville.
In addition to Ms. Byrd, survivors include other children, Dee Bawer and Debbie Caraker, both of Glen Burnie, and Thomas Caraker IV of Preston community in Caroline County; a sister, Jeannine Diller of Scottsdale, Ariz., as well as six grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.