Thomas Batcha

1951 - 2019

Thomas Batcha drowned on April 13, 2019 in Monterey Bay as part of NOAA Team OCEAN Otter Program. He was born on Hill Air Force Base, Price, Utah in 1951. He was a Chess Champion graduating from Encina High School, Sacramento, CA. He earned a Bachelor of Science with a Major in Statistics from UC Davis, was a 2nd Lt US Army Field Artillery Master Gunner at Fort Ord, Monterey, and obtained a Masters of Science in Computer Science degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Tom was an Olympic Trainee Epee Fencer, with Coach Nick Toth, and a member of the Pikes Peak Fencing League He was a passionate sailor and a member of Class A Fleet 61 in CO. He developed product at HP, and then went on to create a successful software company in Colorado Springs. Among his accomplishments there he was a Co-inventor of 2 U.S. Patents: U.S. Patent #6957418 ("System and Method of Designing, Testing, and Employing Graphical Computer Code," October 18, 2005); and U.S. Patent #5883639 ("Visual Software Engineering System and Method for Developing Visual Prototypes and For Connecting User Code To Them," March 16, 1999). He also wrote an article for embedded.com; "Compact Graphics Code" (November, 2001). Tom then went on to the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, CA as a Private Contract Software Deep Learning Designer, retiring in 2017. He was an active community volunteer; both with Team OCEAN, as well as Disaster Planning for Sand City, CA, and teaching a Monterey Students HS Robotics class. Please join us for the Festival of Lanterns pageant and fireworks on July 27 at 8pm at Lovers Point; Tom's annual birthday celebration. You are also invited to join the Celebration of Life Cruise on July 28, 2019 embarking at 5:00 pm on Monterey Bay Boat Charters from 84 Fisherman's Wharf for ashes release off Lover's Point. Prior to the cruise there will be a garden gathering at the family residence from noon until 3pm. Please RSVP by July 1 if you plan to ride on the cruise. The family is offering an open invitation to the public (or family and friends) to join as Kayakers (if south winds are not prevailing) or invited to join at Lovers Point for viewing from land. (Also, RSVP for help with kayaks from Pacific Grove Adventures.) The family requests in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to protect the otters or the Monterey Bay that Tom loved and died for.