The Locher Family: An Adventure in Newtown Square

A Family That's Always Busy and Always Having Fun

by Craig Whitney

Tom and Shannon Locher with their sons Dillon and Nathan at the Okehocking Preserve

All photos courtesy of Shannon Lynn Photography www.ShannonLynnPhotography.com

Tom and Shannon Locher have made a very adventurous life for themselves in Newtown Square. Tom and their sons, Dillon and Nathan, will be out exploring nature or going on hikes and hunting trips on the weekends. On an average weekend in the summer, the whole family is down the shore fishing, and many weekends in the fall and winter the Lochers will host the neighborhood at their house. No matter the season, the Lochers are always busy and always having fun.

Of all places for a fun-loving family to start, Tom and Shannon would end up meeting at a funeral. The very unfortunate situation occurred where a friend of theirs died at a young age. Shannon and Tom had many mutual friends despite not speaking with each other before meeting officially at the funeral. They could only imagine the distress that the girlfriend of the deceased was feeling, so the group decided to come together and spend more time socializing with her the year afterward. For that whole year, the friend group rallied around this woman and everyone grew closer in the process. Eventually, Tom and Shannon would fall for each other and start dating.

I’ve heard of some people getting married at the place where they met, but for the two of us I always knew that wasn’t in the cards,” Shannon said jokingly.

Tom and Shannon Locher

Tom Locher has worked for Aqua America for the past ten years. It was a job he sought out once he discovered that Shannon was pregnant with their first child. A man Tom used to caddy for was a manager at Aqua America at the time and offered him the job. “I like that I get the chance to go somewhere new and do something different every day. And it beats an office job, I can’t picture myself sitting in front of a computer,” Tom said.

Shannon went to Temple University to pursue a degree in marketing. She wanted to go for a degree in photography, but her father urged her to reconsider. Shannon would go on to make her own photography business, Shannon Lynn Photography, and even now agrees that it was the right decision. Skills in marketing and a sense for business are just as important as skills in photography when it comes to owning a photography business.

Shannon's specialty is maternity and newborn portrait photography, while also doing family and children. “I like dealing with moms, not brides,” Shannon joked mostly seriously. “Moms are always happy, brides you never know.”

Being a mother herself, Shannon is very aware of the importance of the photos she takes. Her two sons are now in school with their own interests, and it feels like just recently they were newborns she could hold in her hands.

I like giving people these memories and moments that they will have forever. People usually don’t stop and capture that anymore.”

With the rise of casual photography, taking photos of important moments has become devalued. It’s an interesting juxtaposition that Shannon thinks about often. Everyone takes photos of everything, so the truly important moments don’t get special treatment. The opportunity to make those moments special again is a privilege Shannon takes very seriously.

Shannon will be the photographer for this magazine moving forward, which is something she and everyone at Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors are very excited about. Not only is she a talented photographer and a hard worker, but from getting to know her we know she has a love for her family and for the people of Newtown Square.

Shannon Locher with sons Dillon and Nathan

Tom and Shannon's sons both attend Culbertson Elementary. Nathan is the younger brother, five years old, and takes on the role of the energetic attention seeker in the family. Fun-loving and charismatic, Nathan is the first one to crack a joke whenever he has an audience. “He is the comedian of the family, he loves when the attention is on him,” Tom said with a smile.

Dillon is the older son at eight years old, and loves to fish more than any child his age. When the family vacationed in Disney World last summer, everyone went bass fishing and Dillon caught the biggest bass of anyone on the boat. “He knows more than some men that are avid fishermen,” Shannon said of Dillon. “All he wanted for Christmas was fishing lures, tackle boxes and other accessories. He lives and breathes for fishing.”

Left to right: Tom Locher fishing with sons Nathan and Dillon

The Locher family vacation to Disney World was truly magical, but not just because of the fun they had inside the park. In classic Locher fashion, the trip made its way to the water and much of the trip was spent fishing and boating. The Lochers also spend a large amount of their vacation time at the Jersey shore, where their relatives have multiple houses. Whether it’s Avalon or Cape May, the family always ends up boating and fishing.

When the Lochers find time in a busy week, they will be outside fishing, boating or hunting. Tom takes a lot of pride in the fact that his children prefer the outdoors to video games, and would rather dig a hole in the backyard than stay inside doing anything else. Most family vacations include grandparents and aunts and uncles, so the recent family trip to Disney World was special for them. It is not often that Tom, Shannon, Nathan and Dillon get the chance to be together just the four of them, and that time in Florida reminded Shannon of how important that can be.

“Something we say as a family is ‘make it count.’ Make every day worth it, life is short and you gotta do what you can every day to make it special.”

The neighborhood around the Lochers in Newtown Square has been a wonderful place to raise a family. There are many young families with kids around Nathan’s and Dillon’s ages, and there are neighborhood activities that can bring all of the families closer together. Several times during the summer, the neighbors would all bring camping gear out into the backyards and have a group campout over night. Because the Lochers have a finished basement and a pool in the backyard, they also end up hosting all of the children the most often.

I love how our neighborhood feels like a little village,” Shannon raved. “We’re all close and everybody does whatever they can to help each other. It’s a very welcoming community that we have created here.”

Over the past few years, the Locher family has grown and their house in Newtown Square has become more and more of a home. The Lochers have built a sense of home in Newtown Square that has brought their family closer together and has made every day more of an adventure.

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