KNOX — Thomas Grippin had a skilled hand as a carpenter and a good heart as a family man.

He liked to fix things. With cots borrowed from his parents, he and the love of his life, JoAnn Blair, slept beside the woodstove with her son in their new home in Knox. They worked during the day and spent the remaining hours gutting walls and making the home livable.

Mr. Grippin also used the lessons his mother taught him to work with wood on a smaller scale, building clocks, birdhouses, and model airplanes. For a recent Mother’s Day, he made a grandmother’s clock — using magnets instead of weights for the pendulum — but he didn’t finish it in time and gave it to her the following Christmas.

Mr. Grippin died at his home on Wednesday, March 11, 2015. He was 58.

He was born in Albany on Oct. 7, 1956, to Harold and Dorothy (née Schell) Grippin.

He grew up in East Berne with two younger siblings, a brother and a sister. Fishing and hunting, which he loved to do throughout his life, were special outings with his grandfather and father, to whom he was close.

He learned how to fish and repair cars from his father, which he later taught to his sister.

The three siblings played softball and kickball on their farm on Pinnacle Road. After he had met Ms. Blair, they bought the house in Knox, just a short drive from his childhood home. He was wed to the Hilltowns.

“He’d rather go farther up the mountain than have to even think about going down off the mountain,” said Ms. Blair.

On one of their first dates, Mr. Grippin and Ms. Blair took a rowboat onto Thompsons Lake to go fishing and Mr. Grippin kept talking to her.

“I was always brought up, fishing you’ve got to be quiet, you’ve got to be patient,” said Ms. Blair. “I’m like, ‘Hon, I caught three fish.’ He said, ‘Hey, how come you caught something and I didn’t?’”

Ms. Blair said he was a caring and gentle person. They came into their relationship with each already having a child, and he embraced Ms. Blair’s son, Nicholas Kalinowski, she said.

“If somebody lied to him, that was his one main thing,” said Ms. Blair. “If he caught somebody in a lie, he would let him know it.”

Working for the state’s Department of Transportation, Mr. Grippin plowed and paved the roads as a highway worker. When he had time off, he enjoyed watching a race from the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.

His favorite food was spaghetti. “He could eat spaghetti and sausage seven days a week, if I let him,” said Ms. Blair.

But, at the same time, he was a man who taught her, she said, that men could be gentle and caring.

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Thomas H. Grippin is survived by the love of his life, JoAnn Blair; his son, Wesley Grippin and his wife, Casey; his grandsons Owen Grippin and Ryan Grippin; his brother Timothy Grippin and his sister Shelly Murphy, and nephew Jordy.

A funeral was held on Sunday, March 15, at Fredendall Funeral Home in Altamont.

Online condolences may be made at www.fredendallfuneralhome.com.

— Marcello Iaia