Life Story

Tom’s Mother was a quadapedgic after an auto accident when she was 16. She married Tom’s father and had a great love for children and went onto have 3 boys. Tom was the oldest of those 3 boys (Tom, Steve and Joe). When Tom was 16 he also had an auto accident which resulted in him becoming a partaplic in June of 1971. At the time of his death Tom was one of the oldest living parapligics in the USA after being in a wheelchair for +51 years. He never felt his accident would hold him back from maximizing his life. He graduated from Tri County High School 1 year behind his class of 1973. He received his BS degree from Grand Valley State in1983 in HR Management. He became a paralegal and worked for a number of different law firms. He was always ready and willing to forego his career to move to the next city or state where Julie was going to move for her employement. He worked for Dallas Area Rapid transit and Simmon's Mattress company in Auburn, WA He and his wife adopted 5 wonderful children from Siberia Russia (Gary, Nick, Ellie, Tonya and Jack) between 2000 and 2003. He then became Mr. Mom and stay home to help care for the kids. He loved being a father and the children became his whole life. In his free time, he loved to get on the internet look for and purchase land, site unseen. He loved and often purchased knives and guns and had a large collection. He loved to go for drives in the Pacific Northwest and discover new places. He was a man that "Loved his family, Loved his Faith and Loved his Country."