Thomas Stoker

The Rev. Tom Stoker, whose ministry and music touched thousands of lives, died Sunday, May 10, 2015, of complications from metastatic melanoma of the eye. He was 61. In both life and death, Tom embodied the essence of faith and modeled a life of service and excellence. Service: 5 p.m. Sunday, May 24, at Arborlawn United Methodist Church, 5001 Briarhaven Road, Fort Worth. Visitation: 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 23, at Thompson's Harveson & Cole Funeral Home. Memorials: In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to the music ministry at Arborlawn, a music education program in your church or community, or the Jefferson Foundation in Philadelphia, with a notation that it is for the "Uveal Melanoma Research Fund." Tom's oncologist at Jefferson, Dr. Takami Sato, is the world leader in researching and treating the type of cancer Tom faced. Donate online at advancement.jefferson.edu/ supportsato. Thomas Melvin Stoker was a gifted and brilliant artist whose goal was to bring people closer together and closer to God through the gift of music. The working palette he held contained musical notes; his life's work centered on growing people and building relationships, the canvas he used was life itself. Throughout his remarkable journey, Tom Stoker compiled an impressive list of awards, recognitions and extraordinary achievements. In the end, though, his greatest achievement was not a singular musical composition published or a particular project completed. His greatest achievement was the culmination of a lifetime of service, excellence, faith, passion, dedication and leadership. As we remember his life's journey, consider all the events and details of his life as singular musical notes on a piece of paper. When all the notes are brought together, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Connect all the remarkable events of his extraordinary life and the result is a breathtakingly beautiful masterpiece that was and is the life of Tom Stoker. The music and the journey began July 14, 1953, in Abilene with his parents, Melvin and Bonnie Stoker. They welcomed him into this world. No doubt they were there to welcome him into the next. After graduating from high school, he packed up an old green Ford Falcon and headed to Birmingham, Ala., inspired by his church's music minister to study music at a campus he had not previously visited. He graduated five years later from Samford University with a degree in music. He later earned a master's in church music from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Tom met Pam Overton in their first year at Samford. They were made for each other. They joined their love of music and their love for one another, creating a beautiful harmony together that carried them through more than 40 years of love, ministry, music and devotion to family. Tom started his ministry in Birmingham while he was a student, directing the choir at Green Valley Baptist Church. He later served nine years as music minister and was ordained at First Baptist Church in Columbiana, Ala., where he built a comprehensive music ministry, highlighted by touring with youth choirs across the country. He also established a community youth chorus presenting annual summer concerts. In 1982, Tom and his family moved to Fort Worth where he directed music at Colonial Baptist Church in Dallas. The following year he was hired to build a youth choir program at Fort Worth's Broadway Baptist Church. In 15 years there, he built a comprehensive music education program spanning age 3 to adult. His youth choirs toured annually across North America and parts of Europe, including performances in the National Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Major League baseball stadiums in the U.S. and Canada. He also oversaw the design and installation of the 191-rank Rildia Bee O'Bryan Cliburn Organ. During that process, he developed a lasting friendship with Van Cliburn, the acclaimed pianist. Before Mr. Cliburn died in 2013, he asked Tom to plan and conduct the music for his funeral. After Tom left Broadway in 1998, he served as interim music minister for two churches -- Spring Creek Baptist Church in Oklahoma City and Westcliff United Methodist Church in Fort Worth. When Westcliff and Overton Park United Methodist churches merged in 2005 to form Arborlawn, Tom was named the minister of worship arts for Arborlawn United Methodist Church. He directed the 130-member Chancel Choir and oversaw the Concerts at Arborlawn, a series of performances serving the community. He worked closely with architects, designers and church leaders to plan the new $12.5 million sanctuary, which was dedicated in 2011. He also oversaw the design and installation of the 106-rank Garland Pipe Organ. For nearly 30 years, Tom directed the annual Fourth of July concert with a community choir singing patriotic music to a packed house. He collaborated with organists at First Presbyterian Church and Arborlawn United Methodist Church to raise the roof with rousing Sousa marches and stirring songs. Tom also created Stoker Resources Group for marketing and event production in 1999. It was rebranded as SRG Creative Solutions in 2014. The agency currently provides branding, production and consulting services for local businesses, performing arts groups and faith groups throughout North America. Tom Stoker has done in his death what he treasured most in life. He has brought those he loved closer to each other and closer to God. In his unwavering passion to use the gift of music to bring forth the best within us and point us to God, Tom became a sacred gift himself. He was a faithful servant of Jesus Christ and, in his own words, "a beloved child of God." God used his life to create a masterpiece of beauty and grace. Like every great masterpiece, his life, his love and his legacy will live on in the people whose lives he touched. Tom was a minister first who used music to bring people together and bring them to God. He was committed to doing everything with excellence, and he left an indelible mark on thousands of young people who learned to look for God in everything and everyone. His deep faith helped him face death with unwavering calm, confident in what lies ahead. Remembered with love by: His wife, Pam; their son, Chas; their daughter, Stephanie Hicks, her husband, Elliott, and children, Ash and Zoe Fulkerson; and his sister, Susan Stanton and her husband, Ken, and their daughters and families.