Thomas J. Semanchin, 81, managing partner of Amherst accounting firm

Oct. 17, 1942 – April 15, 2024

Thomas J. Semanchin, retired managing partner of an Amherst certified public accounting firm, died April 15 at the Brothers of Mercy Wellness Campus, Clarence, after a yearlong battle with bladder cancer. He was 81.

Born in Buffalo, Thomas John Semanchin was the son of John and Helen Kuc Semanchin and the younger of two children.  

He was vice president of his eighth-grade class at St. Agnes School and was a 1960 graduate of Baker Victory High School, where he was an honor student, a Student Council member, a forward on the varsity basketball team and a Catholic School all-star baseball player.

The first in his family to attend college, he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University at Buffalo. He served in the Army Reserve and found his first accounting job with a railroad, traveling throughout the East Coast and Midwest.

In 1964, he joined Clarence Rainess & Co., a certified public accounting firm in the Town of Tonawanda, and was named partner in 1979.

Mr. Semanchin and Richard H. Wetter joined Greenfield and Co. in Amherst as partners in 1984. The firm became Wiggle, Semanchin, Wetter and Co. and split into two companies in 1988. He became managing partner of the new firm, Semanchin, Wetter and Scheib, now Semanchin and Wetter LLP, and retired in the late 2000s.

Active in the Buffalo Chapter of the New York State Society of Public Accountants, he was chairman of the Committee on Cooperation with the Bar Association.

A longtime Clarence resident, he enjoyed fishing trips to Canada with friends and hosting his grandchildren at summer lake cottages in Wisconsin, Michigan…