Thomas Reese

Thomas Reese
10/07/2024
Tom Reese died peacefully at home on October 7, 2024, a few weeks after celebrating his 90th birthday with his family. Tom was born in Chicago and lived in Elmhurst, Illinois for much of his young childhood. When he was 15, he moved with his family to Palo Alto, California.
After graduating from Paly High School in 1952, Tom graduated from Occidental College. He then obtained an M.A. in International Economics from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Tom considered a career in Foreign Service and interned at the Department of State. Ultimately, he decided to pursue a law career and went on to graduate from Stanford Law School in 1960. A year later, Tom was commissioned into the U.S Coast Guard and served as Assistant Communications Officer, 12th CG District. Tom remained in the Coast Guard Reserve for seven years and resigned as a Lieutenant in 1969.
Tom joined the trial law firm of Low, Ball & Norton in San Francisco and Menlo Park, then to Norton and Reese, which in 1969 became Lakin Spears in Palo Alto where he was a partner. Tom tried jury and bench cases, representing plaintiffs and defendants, in property damage, personal injury, professional malpractice, insurance coverage, estate distribution disputes, real estate and antitrust. In 1994, Tom retired from Lakin Spears to serve as a mediator and arbitrator and continued to work professionally up until a few years ago. Tom served as President of California Dispute Resolution Council and President of the Palo Alto Bar Association, he was a Trustee of the Santa Clara Bar Association and a Fellow in the College of Commercial Arbitrators and was an appointed member of the California State Bar Standing Committee of Alternative Dispute Resolution. As his children would always say, he was not one to sit idle.
Tom married Carolyn Watson in 1963. They raised their three children, Kathleen, David and Deborah, in Palo Alto where they made lifelong friends. Throughout their 54 years of marriage, Tom and Carolyn were passionate about community involvement and volunteering their time. They loved their ski trips with family and friends and treasured their Sunday afternoon tennis matches with their dear friends at Foothills Tennis and Swim Club. When their kids were young, they took family road trips along the coast and up to Oregon, Idaho and Washington in their legendary red Ford Country Squire station wagon. Tom and Carolyn traveled extensively throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, often with Tom behind the wheel and Carolyn covering her eyes praying for a safe arrival! Tom loved to garden which he always attributed to his time spent as a child helping with the harvest at their family farm in Kankakee County, Illinois. Tom spent his weekends nurturing his home vegetable garden in the mornings and then would hop on his bike to ride to the community garden at Eleanor Park. Neighbors knew it had been a bountiful harvest when Carolyn pleaded with them to take some of the baskets of vegetables he had successfully grown!
Both Tom and Carolyn served as Directors of the National Eczema Association for many years and, together, they were founding members of Avenidas Village in Palo Alto. Throughout their lives, they both sought out those who needed them in their communities, and then set out to help them. Our family is grateful for the way in which those communities continually returned that embrace to them, especially in their later years. Tom's family treasured his kindness and unconditional love, and the wisdom that he continually shared with them throughout their lives.
Tom is survived by his three children, Kathleen Reese, David Reese, and Debby Niethammer; his son-in-law, Jim, and daughter-in-law, Ruby; his granddaughters, Kelly, Lindsay, and Caroline Niethammer; his grandsons, Nicholas Dilg and Mike Reese, and his sister, Ellen Peterson, brother-in-law, Allen, and his nephew, Andrew Peterson, and niece, Katherine Redmond.
Any donations in Tom's memory are requested to be made to the Golden West Chapter of ALS, Avenidas Village or the National Eczema Association.