Thomas Edward Hudson

I edited the first few of his Tom Swift books. I swapped edited copies for paperback titles.

Tom was my best friend in high school in Oregon. He was always funny and interesting. When I left Oregon my junior year, I always planned to stay in touch with Tom, but we lost touch. We reconnected a few years ago, but again, fell short of an actual reunion. I am very sorry to hear that he is gone. The world has lost a wonderful human being.

I first met Tom Hudson when I was interviewing for a tech writer job in the Apple Training group where he worked with Joanne Carroll, Beth Weslow, Colleen Trinko, Linda Paulson, and others. He was affable and immediately likable. He also threw a great annual party that I got to attend just once with my Dad. (He and Tom had a lot in common.) Conversations with Tom were always interesting, at the very least, and often hilarious: even when we were talking about work.

Tom and I met in what I like to think of as the Golden Age of Apple Training. Smart, creative, eccentric people banding together, working hard, playing hard. I often had lunch with Tom, and as he was a more experienced corporate creature, I often went to him for advice. He was a hoot to work with.

For years after we left Apple, I attended the parties that Patti and Tom so graciously held for their friends. After he moved to Oregon, we for the most part lost contact, though I did have conversations with him about his sci-fi passions and writing. We had similar tastes, and I was always impressed by the volume of his collections! Sean Stewart passed a couple years ago, and he and Tom and I had many an interesting conversation, on a wide range of topics. I think Sean brought back a bottle of scotch for Tom from Scotland.

It's a great loss, Patti and Tom were such a well-matched and amiable couple. We are all now decades older, and with each year more of us move on.

Tom was eccentric in the best possible way, and I always appreciated that, because I was a fellow eccentric. We had many shared passions. Well, mainstream is boring, anyone can do that. Tom lived his passions, good advice for us all.

Patti, I'm sorry that this happened, and I hope that in the coming difficult time that you will remember only the happy times in your long life together. You certainly made our little community happy over the years. I still have photos of your holiday parties!