Thomas Curlee

I was on several projects with Tom but only got to have a personal relationship after retirement. We met at monthly bull sessions at the Poughkeepsie Gallery and I always enjoyed his sense of humor talking about the `good old old days´. Sorry to hear of his passing.

My heartfelt prayers and sympathies to the family.

I can only hope that you will begin to feel some of the peace that now surrounds Tom.

1968 I was a BSEE student at Clemson and met Tom when he was supervising a lab I attended.

1970 Returning from Vietnam (I actually was previously stationed at Fort Polk!), I came to work at IBM Poughkeepsie, and have lived here ever since. At some point Tom and I found each other and kept in touch. I found out were were also fellow Tau Beta Pi members (See photo).

I frequently talk with other IBM friends who also knew Tom from work.

Then a few months ago Tom called and said we should get together
for lunch at DaddyO's in Hopewell Junction. We talked on the phone a few times after that, catching up some more.

On October 4th we finally had that lunch. (See photo).
As Tom got ready to drive home, he discovered he'd locked the key in his car.
Having done the same thing more than once, I offered to drive him home and get another key. That gave us a round-trip to trade more stories.

Over the next few weeks, we had a couple long talks, exchanging details about every hifi (remember that term?) amplifier, preamp, speaker, turntable, CD player we had, or dreamed of having.

When I offered Tom my recording of 36 hours of the History of Rock & Roll, he accepted and sent me the CDs of his fantastic oldies collection, complete with printed documentation. I've definitely been enjoying it! Last time we talked he'd started listening to my DVD.

Only a couple weeks ago, we promised to get together in his mancave for some real good fun ASAP. He'd kept me up to date on his condition, and hoped we'd do it after the holidays.

But now, I've been blessed to have Tom as such a good longtime friend before he left this earth.

May He Rest in Peace.

Fred