We Celebrate the Life of Thom Birch

Please join us in celebrating the life of Thom Birch. For those of you who did not know Thom, he was an incredibly gifted athlete, musician, and teacher. His intense enthusiasm for life and his personal charisma touched and enhanced the lives of all who knew him. Thom loved people and was always there for anyone in need.

Growing up in the Bronx, Thom overcame a childhood of constant struggle to become a world class runner. He attended the University of Houston on a full track and field scholarship, becoming the Most Valuable Athlete of his graduating class. After returning to New York in l982, he went on to become an exceptional yoga teacher, touching the lives of tens of thousands of runners and athletes in his classes through the New York Road Runners Club in New York City from l986-2002. He helped to heal and inspire many an injured runner, himself coming back from a career ending injury to regain a national title in 1985. His mental and physical training as a runner always put him a few steps ahead of most everyone else – which helped him to act almost instantaneously and save the lives of three people over the past 20 years – one from choking to death, one from drowning after being carried out to a reef on an ocean current, and the last from burning to death in a blazing car accident.

I will miss you, my brother...