by C. Ray Hall
Courier-Journal
Joe Tom Erwin, a gregarious "hermit" who was once the outdoors columnist for The Courier-Journal and the sports information director at Murray State University, died early yesterday at Baptist Hospital in Paducah, Ky.
Erwin, who was 81, had been diagnosed with lung cancer about five weeks ago, said Evie Paschall, a niece.
She recalled his words when he heard the diagnosis: "I'm 81. I've lived a good long life, and I don't have anything to regret."
Erwin, a former Marine who won a Bronze Star and Purple Heart in World War II, retired at age 52 after more than 20 years as Murray's sports publicist.
Erwin was known for bursts of booming laughter and long spells of reflective silence. He was, by all accounts, a complex man who achieved a simple life. He was a farm boy who read Albert Camus and listened to the music of Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald.
"He was probably the most chronic reader I've ever known," said Charles Mercer, a Kentucky Lake neighbor.
"He was totally unpretentious," Paschall said. "He didn't put on airs -- for anybody. He was the least judgmental person in the world. He fought for the underdog, always."
Terri Erwin, a niece who is a child psychologist in Louisville, said her uncle "achieved a life of simplicity without materialism."
Before he retired to his lakeside cabin, Erwin lived a very public life.
"He was a great ambassador for Murray State," said Ed Given, retired sports information director at Western Kentucky University. "I think the term hail-fellow well-met might have originated with Joe Tom. He was always a lot of fun, had a smile on his face."
The outgoing nature helped Erwin -- and others -- do their jobs better, Given said.
"He was a great guy for hospitality," Given said. "I don't think any of us could make a writer or an announcer feel more at home or more at ease than Joe Tom did."
And yet the hail-fellow well-met left it all nearly 30 years ago.
"Joe Tom was unique," said Dwain McIntosh, a retired Murray State publicist.
"He did it his way. He had been practically a hermit.
"He stayed on the lake, and every now and then he would come in to get groceries. But usually he sent somebody else."
Former Courier-Journal state editor Jim Ausenbaugh, one of Erwin's occasional fishing companions, said, "He was the most laid-back guy you ever saw."
But Erwin wasn't laid-back about fishing.
"He was tremendously competitive," Ausenbaugh said. "He wanted to catch the first fish and the last fish, and every one in between."
Erwin graduated from Murray State in 1948 and earned a master's degree at Indiana University. He was a teacher in Missouri and Indiana before returning to Murray State, where he became the school's second sports information director, in 1956.
Visitation will be held at J.H. Churchill Funeral Home in Murray after 6 p.m. Friday. A public graveside service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at South Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church in his home town of Hazel, Ky.