WESTHAMPTON — Every morning Thomas Bisbee would come to Hampshire Regional High School a few minutes early to get his favorite parking spot.
He would back into it in his Toyota pickup truck playing country music. His friends would pull in, parking in the rows beside him, but careful not to get too close. He didn’t like people touching his truck.
Bisbee died Wednesday following a heart attack at age 17. Bisbee’s parents, who live in Goshen, said he fought for his life for about a week at Baystate Children’s Hospital.
His parking spot has been painted and decorated in his honor.
On Saturday about 100 people came together around the Hampshire Regional High School parking space to remember him, many wearing T-shirts that said “Stronger Together” and beaded bracelets reading “T-Strong.”
“I didn’t realize how many people he touched until we went to the school,” said Scott Bisbee, his father.
Thomas Charles “T” Bisbee was born April 2, 1999. His mother, Jennifer Bisbee, used to call him “chunky monkey.” His had a brother, Alden, who is four years older, and about a dozen people he considered cousins or family beyond blood.
Every day after school, Bisbee worked at George Propane, a heating and plumbing company where his father works as well as his friends Graham and Harry George. During the summer, he would work about six days a week.
“Sometimes he was more of an adult than I was,” Scott Bisbee said.
Thomas Bisbee loved hunting and fishing, but his real passion was archery. The family was into the sport, but Bisbee took it to the next level.
When he got his first professional bow, Bisbee practiced inside, shooting at a target he placed at the end of the hallway. That resulted in a few holes in the linen closet door, his mother said.
In the winter, he would open the cellar doors and shoot at an outside target from inside.
He competed in many archery competitions. His parents said he could shoot a bull’s-eye from 70 yards.
In August, he placed 20th in the International Bowhunting Organization World Championship.
But few of his friends and classmates knew of his interest in archery.
At Saturday’s gathering, Bisbee’s favorite spot was decorated with items from many of his interests, such as a box of fishing supplies, orange cones lined up to make a big “T” and a figurine of “Bigfoot.”
Bisbee was a believer in Bigfoot. For a class project, he gave a huge presentation on Bigfoot. He got an “A.”
“It’s Sasquatch first of all,” Graham recalled Bisbee correcting him. George said he and his friends plan to do a Sasquatch hunt in Bisbee’s honor.
“He was a quiet kid at home,” Jennifer Bisbee said. “He was good-natured and honest.”
But he was almost a different person at school, according to his longtime friend and classmate Graham George, 17.
“He was always saying something funny,” George said. “We couldn’t get him to shut up.”
Bisbee and his friends started a new prank, “coning.” They would place orange cones in people’s driveways. Sometimes it would be two cones, other times 15 cones would be placed in a driveway.
“No one was brave enough to ‘cone’ Thomas,” Harry George said, with one exception. One night around midnight, Bisbee noticed his driveway had been coned. Before the sun was up, he moved the cones to the driveway of the person who put them there, George said.
A big American flag was mounted on a board by his parking spot. Red, white and blue balloons were signed with words for Bisbee. His parking spot was white with a red line on one side and a blue line on the other. Blue letters spelled out “T STRONG.”
He was proud to be an American.
“He was happy to be free,” senior Justine Legowski, 17, said.
“His passing affected everyone,” senior Danielle McGan, 17, said. “He always made everyone smile.”
Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.