Thomas Fuller

Thomas LeRoy Fuller

September 10, 1946 - August 25, 2025

Tom Fuller died on August 25 at home with his son Brian by his side. A resident of Carbonado, Washington since 2016, and a resident of Lake Tapps and Auburn for decades prior, Tom was known as a generous person whose home was a welcome place for family, friends, neighbors, and their dogs.

Born in Portland, Oregon on September 10, 1946, Tom was the little brother of sisters Nancy and Verna. These three would remain devoted to each other throughout their lives, planning family reunions and holiday visits where they would cherish each other and retell stories to their children and grandchildren. Popular stories about Tom usually featured trouble that found him at school, and the baton Nancy bent or the lunchbox Verna dented while defending him. All three learned and loved to hunt, fish, and camp in the Oregon outdoors, and for many years the shared hunting trip was an annual event for their families.

Though he claimed to be too short for sports, Tom graduated from Parkrose Senior High School in 1964 with a football letter to go with his membership in drum corps. He married fellow Parkrose graduate Kristin Petersen in 1967, and they welcomed son Brian while living in Redmond, Oregon, where Tom was a hotshot and smoke jumper for the U.S. Forest Service. Brian's arrival made Kris less enthusiastic about a husband who jumped out of airplanes to fight fires, so the growing family moved back to Portland. By 1970 son Dan had arrived, and Tom was a forklift salesman for the Hyster Corporation in Portland.

1973 saw the family living in Seattle, where Tom's new career would lead to decades of partnership, friendship, hunting, and shenanigans with his employer, his family, and a circle of friends. Kris and Tom built a house on six acres outside of Auburn and raised their boys along with two dogs, a cat, a pony, and a rotating cast of cows. Tom's enthusiasm for fun with his boys and their friends was constant, from greasy days on forklifts to dirty days on motocross bikes, cold nights on hunting trips and Boy Scout camps to warm days on boats. After Tom's marriage to Kris ended in 1980 he devoted even more time to his boys through Ski Patrol, scuba diving, and water skiing. He took his boys along while building an independent business of his own, and strengthened many relationships and friendships along the way.

Despite all of the things Tom accumulated while having fun, his desires remained simple. He wanted a home where people felt welcome. He wanted to spend time with people he loved. He wanted everyone to love his dog Bear as much as he did, which wasn't possible but we all tried anyway. As his boys grew out of school and into lives and families of their own, Tom and Bear kept hosting and visiting with smiles, gifts, and sing-alongs to inappropriate smoke jumper songs.

He always did his best to be the best dad that he could be, and he always was.

Tom is survived by his sons Brian and Dan, his daughters-in-law Christy and Heather, and his grandchildren Kyle, Mitchell, Andrew, Luca, and Ellery. He was preceded in death by his sisters Verna and Nancy and his parents Gladys and Dale. He dearly loved his nieces and nephews-Debbie, Stacy, Bobby, Jerry, Ron-and their families, and he considered the family of his devoted friends Kim and Ken to be his family too.

Tom would say he doesn't need anything donated in his memory, but he would encourage support for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, national and state parks, and other outdoor causes.