Thomas Mansfield McCartney

Thomas Mansfield McCartney Eugene - Thomas Mansfield McCartney died on February 22, 2023, at the age of 73, of natural causes. Tom was born in Boone, Iowa on December 15, 1949, as the oldest son of William Mansfield McCartney and Margaret Mary Pepper McCartney. His grandparents, Jake and Esther Illimann McCartney and Ray and Ethel McGlynn Pepper, also from the Boone area, were large influences on Tom's life.

Tom graduated from Mason City High School in 1968, where he excelled in football, basketball, and track. It was unusual for Tom to play any sport outside of organized sports. In his free time he preferred to spend his time outdoors, enjoying nature, and spending hours hiking in the woods, hunting, fishing, bird watching, and identifying various types of trees. There were few flying creatures or trees he could not identify.

Tom left home early in his adulthood, and married Kate Bowen McCartney in Ft. Collins Colorado. They were married for 15 years. It was in Fort Collins that Tom learned to climb and trim trees for a local tree service. Later, he and Kate searched the west to find a spot to live; in 1978 they chose Eugene, Oregon, where Tom founded McCartney Tree Surgery, and where he remained for the rest of his life, retiring at age 70.

In 1988, Tom married Kathy Kittleson McCartney from Lake Mills, IA, whom he met at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa while attending a Mason City High School Reunion. With Kathy's help, McCartney Tree Surgery flourished, and there were few trees in the Eugene area that hadn't been touched by Tom's hand. The rest is history, as both Tom and Kathy loved to fish, especially fly fish. They fished all over the world in such places as Belize, North and South New Zealand, Alaska, Canada, the Caribbean, and of course they fished the many beautiful and productive rivers of Oregon. It was this passion that drove them both to the highest standards of fly fishing.

When Tom was 8, his mother overheard one of his friends say, "Here comes Mr. Know-It-All" as Tom approached a group of kids. That summed him up well. Tom will be missed by his family and many friends, classmates, Laurel Hill neighbors, Fridays at 5 Club, and his little brother Bob and Bob's wife Kris. This is not your usual obituary, but Tom was not a usual man.