Tom believed that there was no other way to live life but full throttle. He had an uncanny ability to take a task and marry it with fun. He lived his life almost in glory to God, recognizing that He's made all these great things and the best way to give thanks is to enjoy them!
He had a sense of adventure in everything he did. He walked to the beat of his own drum. He had a different perspective on everything, and always thought way out of the box. He was always honest; he was the epitome of the phrase "say what you want to say when you want to say it."
He loved the gospel and he loved the priesthood. He used it often and with so much faith that it forever affected all those who saw him. There are so many amazing stories of him using his priesthood, like when he miraculously blessed a deaf and blind girl with her sight along with the return of 60% of her hearing, and commanded a girl, surely dead from being hit by a motorcycle on their street, to arise and live. His testimony was vivid and apparent and he shared it with such color and power that people just sat on the edges of their seats while he spoke and loved it.
He was always doing something for someone else, whether it was giving money or letting people stay at their home, as he did with 44 people over the years. He was always faithful to my grandmother. He never spoke any disparaging thought about anyone--that was simply unacceptable. And people loved him for that--no one could ever tell him to walk a mile in their shoes, because they knew he already had!
He was brilliant. He double majored in Math and German, and spent his days as a genius computer programmer, working on military planes and later the space program. He also helped develop the first online travel reservation system. He had an intense and original love for history. He passed on great pride for his Armenian heritage. He also loved literature and had an unparalleled knowledge of the English language and a broad range of intellectual vocabulary. He was creative and a home repair guru--if there was something you told him needed fixing, it'd always be done the next day. He could restore some sort of functionality to almost anything.
He was also a little bit crazy, like buying fuchsia polyester pants, taking his sons (age 16, 13, and 11) on a cross-country motorcycle trip of over 7,000 miles, and quitting his job while buying a mint-condition convertible Camaro on the very same day.
He believed in his kids and supported them in everything. He was the kind of dad that when his kids had long hair he said it looked great, or if they wanted to dance then he'd always pay the costume fee, of if his son Rhett loved Bon Jovi then he thought there must be something to it, so he started listening to Bon Jovi too.
He wasn't perfect, but he was perfect in the important things. He got baptized when he was 26 and never faltered in 56 years. He died having lived a full life with no regrets. What a man!
I hope I have some of him running on through me!
Love you, Gramps.
