State police said the man suffered multiple head trauma, possibly after falling off a cliff at Holyoke Community College.
Juan Gonzalez, a PVTA bus driver, talks about how he found Arthur T. Tucker, 72, injured and motionless on the entry road to Holyoke Community College. Tucker died April 8.HOLYOKE- Something didn’t seem right to Juan J. Gonzalez as he drove his bus early one morning in late March.
He noticed a dark shape on the side of the road on the campus of Holyoke Community College.
It was a few minutes before 6 a.m. on March 31. Gonzalez parked his Pioneer Valley Transit Authority bus at a curb across from Parking Lot A. As he crouched at the base of a 20-foot-high cliff, it was startling enough to find that the dark mass was a person. He was even more stunned when he learned he knew the man.
Arthur T. “Arty” Tucker was a “bus friend,” a frequent passenger who Gonzalez met on his route about five years ago.
Today, Gonzalez and attorney William P. MacDonald, who also considers himself a friend of Tucker, are working to arrange a proper burial for Tucker.
The 72-year-old died on April 8 at Baystate Medical Center. His death resulted from multiple head trauma, according to state police Capt. Peter Higgins. Investigators consider the death an accident, possibly a result of a fall from the ridge on the HCC campus, he said.
If Tucker had family, investigators have been unable to find them, said Higgins, who heads the detective unit assigned to the Hampden district attorney’s office. Tucker’s body will remain with the state medical examiner’s office at Providence Hospital here, Higgins said.
It is possible that Tucker’s body could be released to MacDonald, who has expressed an interest in handling the case, according to Higgins. The decision to release a body rests with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Boston.
Under state law, after waiting at least two weeks to see if someone comes forward to claim a body, the chief medical examiner can release unclaimed remains to the Department of Transitional Assistance for burial.
If someone claims a body and is unable to pay for burial or cremation, the medical examiner can provide a list of institutions that provide such services at no fee.
MacDonald met Tucker in the late 1960s when both worked as part-time security guards in Agawam. MacDonald said he thinks Tucker was from Virginia or West Virginia.
He would go months without seeing Tucker, but enjoyed talking with him when they crossed paths, he said.
“We’re basically trying to give him a decent burial,” MacDonald said.
Adds Gonzalez, “He was my friend. I don’t want him to be forgotten.”
State records traced Tucker’s last residence to a long-ago address on Church Street in West Springfield, Higgins said.
David C. Bergeron said he had been renting Tucker a room in his Homestead Avenue home, which faces Holyoke Community College. It wasn’t unusual for Tucker to be gone for days, or longer, and he never talked about his family or roots, Bergeron said.
Bergeron said he met Tucker years ago when both worked at the YMCA in Springfield.
Tucker told stories about being born in Northampton and playing football and boxing there, even though he had a Southern accent, Bergeron said.
“It made you wonder who he was,” Bergeron said. “I liked him. I don’t know how to explain him, but he kept you wondering all the time.”
Tucker wasn’t a student and didn’t work at Holyoke Community, said spokeswoman JoAnne L. Rome. “But obviously, it’s very sad. Our prayers go out to the family,” Rome said.
Those who knew him describe Tucker as a friendly drifter who worked at restaurant and other short-stay jobs. He had a beard and blue eyes, dressed decently, wore sneakers or hiking boots and usually carried a dark canvas shoulder bag.
Tucker wasn’t known to get drunk or take illegal drugs, and details about his past were elusive, they said.
Gonzalez said he met Tucker about five years ago. They talked about drawing with charcoal, UFOs, music and the photos of sunsets that Gonzalez keeps stored in his cell phone.
“But, we didn’t know anything about his family,” Gonzalez said.
In West Springfield recently, William J. McMahon, 45, remembers Tucker - and his Southern accent - as being a fellow tenant several years ago at 29 Church St. where he rents a room.
Tucker was a hoarder and had a hygiene problem, but he was friendly, McMahon said.
“He’s got that high laugh,” McMahon said.
