Thomas McAllister III

SAPPHIRE - Thomas Grear McAllister III, 87, passed away Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. He began working at age 12, delivering papers for the Miami Daily News. He graduated from Miami Senior High School, class of 1955 (a classmate of former Florida Governor and Senator Bob Graham and local real-estate mogul Sam Leder) where he achieved superior ratings in several Florida State vocal competitions.
He then attended the University of Miami (Florida) on a music scholarship, where he was approached by the Rabbi from Temple Israel in Miami (the largest Reform Jewish Temple in the Southeast) to sing in their choir, where he sang for six years, including being a featured tenor at the High Holy Days celebration at Eden Rock Hotel on Miami Beach in 1960 and 1961, alongside Jan Peerce and Robert Merrill of the New York Metropolitan Opera. He was a soloist with the Miami Beach & Miami Symphony Orchestras and performed live musical theater, including performances of On the Town, Guys & Dolls and others.
After his marriage to wife Pamela Irene Pringle in 1961, the new couple moved to Saint Petersburg, Florida where he was employed by Bristol Laboratories. Their honeymoon was booked on the Evangeline cruise ship, where he earned passage by being a performer there. The couple later moved to Largo, Florida where they raised their three sons, Robert Dale (Pam) McAllister of Port Saint Lucie, Florida, Daniel Grear McAllister of Land O Lakes, Florida and Darrin Thomas McAllister of Clearwater, Florida. During which time, Tom served as the choir director for St. Paul United Methodist Church in Largo and sang at the Temple B'nai Israel in Clearwater.
He also served as President of Clearwater Downtown Sertoma Club (Service to Mankind), chairman of the Fun 'n Sun Parade, chairman of the Fun 'n Sun Festival, a Boy Scout Scoutmaster and as a Little League Baseball coach. He also continued in his musical career, performing at the Little Theater (St. Petersburg), the Bellevue Biltmore Hotel, and the Safety Harbor Spa. While singing at the latter, he was approached by the owner of the Algonquin Hotel (famous for housing Broadway legends, performers, playwrights and musical authors) in New York City and asked to audition for a part in Applause, starring Lauren Bacall (the role eventually went to Len Cariou, for which he received a Tony nomination and is now best known for his part in the TV series Blue Bloods).
Tom trained at Clown College of Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Baily fame, in Sarasota, Florida and became a certified member of "Clowns of America International", whereupon he began weekly visits at the new All Children's Hospital in Saint Petersburg, Florida, entertaining and giving gifts to the young patients each week for more than five years. He and his sons also performed, as clowns, in local parades in Tampa, Saint Petersburg, Clearwater and Largo, frequently riding a custom-built eight-foot-tall bicycle.
In 1972, Tom was promoted to Eastern Regional Sales Manager for Medical Development Corporation in Salt Lake City, Utah, traveling across the country to recruit, train and support dozens of sales associates. In 1977, Tom formed a new venture, Pacing Systems, Inc. as he altered his career and entered the burgeoning field of cardiac pacemakers and other implantable medical devices.
He enjoyed great success, partnering with multiple firms and becoming a highly regarded Field Clinical Engineer, teaching medical specialists across South, Central and North America on the proper techniques to implant pacemakers, AICDs (Automatic Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators) and other specialized devices. He authored multiple clinical applications to the FDA for new cardiac devices for Guidant Corporation in Indianapolis, Indiana. He retired from Guidant in 2000, by that time residing in Sapphire.
In 1981, Tom and Pam moved to Belleair Beach, Florida where he began a short political career, being elected to City Council and later to Mayor of the small city in Pinellas County.
Tom and Pam relocated to Sapphire in 1996 which both came to consider "Heaven on Earth". In 2005, they joined the Country Club of Sapphire Valley and enjoyed the sport of croquet, where they were once the club champions.
To keep busy, Tom founded Prestige Mountain Properties and registered as a Broker In Charge in North Carolina, helping friends with real estate in Western Carolina for nearly two decades as a member of the Highlands-Cashiers Board of Realtors. In 2006, Tom and Pam moved into what would become Burlingame, with Tom serving on the 2010 inaugural board of the Burlingame Property Owners Association.
A private ceremony will be held Saturday, Sept. 20, followed by an "Irish Wake" at Micas Restaurant and Pub in Sapphire from 3 to 5 p.m. All who knew him are invited to join his family in this tribute and in celebration of the life of this dynamic man, a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, businessman and public servant. He will be missed but never forgotten.