He had coffee with his son every morning at 7 then zipped off for breakfast at one of three restaurants — the Village Diner in Dewittville, Ellery Country Cow in Ellery Center or Sinclairville Superette & Hunter’s Cafe.

It was the latter eatery that his son, Thomas “Junior” Rossow, said was his dad’s de facto office because he was there so often.

Rossow’s energy was a thing to marvel, his daughter said.

“He has breakfast at his favorite diner with his favorite waitresses and then he comes home,” Stacy Spencer said. “Sometimes he takes a 20-minute snooze and then he’s up for the day hauling his gravel and fixing his equipment, getting his trucks ready to plow, putting on lights, doing the wiring, greasing and everything else that has to do with, you know, keeping things moving.”

And keep moving Rossow did.

Known by most as Tommy — though he told a friend several times he didn’t know where the nickname originated — he was a man set by routine. When he wasn’t hauling gravel, he also plowed snow, worked an excavator and maintained any number of trucks he owned.

“He felt sorry for everybody,” his son said. “He didn’t want to charge any more than he had to, to buy his fuel. That’s just how he’s always, always been.”

Rossow died Oct. 27 at the age of 83 after the dump truck he was in overturned into a pond.

Born in Buffalo, Rossow spent time as a child with his dad in the Queen City but primarily stayed with his grandmother on her farm in Charlotte Center. His mom died when he was 5 years old, and he remained close with his dad while establishing his own roots in Chautauqua County.

Spencer said her dad loved to work, staying active throughout his adult life and remaining just as busy when others would be settling into retirement. The lifestyle meant he was known well in the community.

“I would say that everyone he greeted, he greeted them with a smile and a handshake or a hug,” Spencer said. “He was a pleasant man to run into anytime anybody saw him.

“They would go out of their way to speak to him. He was just so kind to everyone and loved by the whole community. Even us, when we go anywhere, everybody’s always talking about my dad.”

Betty Coomes, who moved to Florida not long after graduating high school, has several fond memories with her father. She recalled one Christmas Eve as a child in which the family used a horse and sleigh to get to a neighbor’s party.

“We all went the back way to get to the neighbor’s house because the roads were so treacherous that we all went over the hill and through the woods,” Coomes said. “It was like the perfect Christmas Eve going the back way, you know, over to the neighbor’s for Christmas Eve.”

Rossow’s children also recounted the time a tornado went through Sinclairville, damaging homes and businesses. They said their father helped a man whose home was destroyed in the storm, allowing him to stay with the family.

A TRAGIC ACCIDENT

Tom Rossow said he watched his dad pull out of the driveway with a load of gravel the afternoon of Oct. 27.

“I was in my chair relaxing and, about a half an hour later, a friend of mine that lives right across from where it happened called me,” Tom Rossow recalled. “He said, ‘You better get down here, your dad put the truck in the pond and it don’t look good.”

According to the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office, Rossow had been backing his truck around a pond when the vehicle tipped and went into the water. The accident occurred in the rear of a property off Waterman Road in the town of Stockton.

Rossow, who had been trapped, was pulled from his truck and transported to the hospital in Dunkirk. He was later pronounced dead.

News of the accident and Rossow’s passing drew plenty of comments online. A few noted his willingness to help others and his passion being around equipment.

Coomes said when she called the insurance company in regard to her dad’s death, the receptionist began crying on the phone.

The tragic accident impacted those who came to expect him, whether at the restaurants he frequented or his family. Rossow’s daily routine included dinner with his daughter.

“Every day, between 5 and 6 or so in the evening, he’d come to my house and we would have dinner together,” Spencer said. “I made sure he always had a good hot meal for dinner and we would chat and talk about his day. I’d asked him what he had to eat and what was on the schedule tomorrow and he filled me in and then say, ‘Well, I got to get back to the house,’ and he’d go home and watch his antique shows on TV.

“He was always active, though, and always looking forward to getting up in the morning and going for breakfast.”

A ‘GOOD GUY’

Larry Barmore, president of the Sinclairville Valley Historical Society, dedicated his book, “Sinclairville: The Lost History” to Rossow.

The dedication reads, “Tommy Rossow is a good friend to everyone in the Sinclairville area, including this author. Mostly, I needed a good excuse to use this old picture of Tommy and his first car in 1955, which is history in itself.”

Included on the dedication page is a photograph of a young Rossow and the vehicle.

Barmore ran into Rossow not long after the book was published. He was the first to get a copy of the 200-page publication that includes stories and photos about the village of Sinclairville and its close surrounding areas.

Knowing Rossow for many years, Barmore said, “I don’t know anyone who didn’t like him. … He was just a good guy — never had a lot of anything.”

As his children also noted, Barmore said Rossow didn’t charge much for his services, often accepting far less for tasks such as plowing snow from a driveway than others did for the same work.

“He thought he wasn’t being fair to people,” Barmore said.

Spencer summed up her father in equally simple, yet endearing terms: “He never got rich, he just got by. And that’s all he ever wanted,” she said.

A celebration of life will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, at the Sinclairville Volunteer Fire Hall. A large turnout is expected.