Tom Stone
Tom "Stoner" Stone is a laid back non-businessman who "Tuned In and Dropped Out" in the early seventies, leaving Pharmacology graduate school at Purdue University to join the Lothlorien Commune outside Grantville. After the commune fell apart, Tom took care of the three boys like they were his own, although only one is for sure. In addition to teaching himself subsistence farming, he provided for his small family by raising improved strains of Cannabis in a home-built greenhouse and selling it to an out-of-town contact to avoid trouble with the law. He successfully bribed the kids to keep it secret by promising not to reveal their real names.
In the Ring of Fire story "To Dye For", Tom is frustrated by his affection for Magda, whose guildmaster father has deemed him unsuitable due to his lack of material wealth. Initially, Tom's colorful tie-dyed shirts had signaled "money" in a society where only the rich can afford colors. Tom refuses to charge the town for his cannabis, since it is for medical purposes — he will not make a profit from the pain of others. However, thinking about colors inspires Tom to put his knowledge of chemistry to work, and the results bring him wealth and his desired bride.
Aided by the High School's science department, Stoner goes on to apply his pharmacological knowledge to develop simpler (early era) antibiotics such as Chloramphenicol and some sulfa drugs as well as the insecticide DDT—which are still used in third world countries because they are easy and inexpensive to make compared to alternatives used later in developed countries.
By 1633, "Doctor Professor Stoner" is firmly established as an increasingly rich and famous dye maker, pharmacologist and chemist. He is named as the medical attache to the New United States of Europe's first Embassy delegation sent to the Most Serene Republic of Venice (1634: The Galileo Affair). He accepts a year's posting to lecture at the University of Padua to spread his scientific knowledge.
Read more about this topic: List Of 1632 Characters (fictional), Stone Family
Famous quotes containing the words tom and/or stone:
“The palsy plagues my pulses”
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That hunger broke stone walls, that dogs must eat,
That meat was made for mouths, that the gods sent not
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