Thomas Glenn Cain

Thomas Glenn Cain, 77, of Lakeway, Texas, passed away on May 10, 2025, while vacationing in Strasbourg, France.

Tom was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November 23, 1947, to Walter and Nelda Cain. He graduated from Plainfield High School in 1965 and Purdue University in 1969 with a BS degree in Mathematics and a minor in Computer Science.

When he started programming at Purdue, he loved it. He said, "I like solving problems, and everything is problem solving in writing computer software." While still a student, he interned at the Indiana Department of Transportation. They gave him a project named Mission Impossible. He was able to complete it one week before returning to Purdue. They were so impressed with his success that they hired him to do more programming assignments while still in college. He was granted access to the largest mainframe computer in the world at the time.

After graduation, he moved to New York City, where he wrote programs for Norton-Simon, a large data processing conglomerate. Tom moved to Connecticut in the 1970's where he started his own company, Target Innovations, LTD. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniac hit the scene with Apple personal computers, Tom began programming software for the upstart company. He developed one of their first word processing programs with icons and a dictionary with a spellchecker, so successful they were translated into French and German.

Tom hired high school students to help with the workload over the years. He trained them in coding and programming. He was proud of the fact that all of them went on to major in computer science in college and became very successful.

His biggest accomplishment came in the 1990's. He was a pioneer in voice recognition software. He joined a company called PhoneCharge, an automated software for telephone and internet transactions. Tom said, "We had millions of transactions a month going through our software." He had a patent for methods and apparatus for processing electronic checks. In 2006 PhoneCharge was sold to CheckFree for millions of dollars.

Tom's favorite hobby was bowling. In the 1990's he traveled around the country and competed in high stakes tournaments. In 1997 he won the Connecticut state tournament against 900 amateurs and professionals. After Tom moved to Lakeway in 2006, he turned this hobby into coaching Special Olympics bowlers. He was honored in 2011 with an award from The Special Olympics of Texas.

Tom was involved in many other community activities. He was treasurer of the Thunderbird Club for many years. Tom's yellow Thunderbird convertible was in high demand as a ride for politicians in parades. He joined the Lakeway Men's Breakfast Club as program coordinator, where he arranged speakers in 49 weekly programs each year. He joined The Hills Country Club in Lakeway, where he was a frequent golfer. He was a regular attendee at the Lakeway Newcomers Club, a social organization with

monthly dinners and Christmas Galas. Tom was president of the Yaupon Creek Homeowners Association for two years.

He always enjoyed attending his high school reunions: Class of '65 Plainfield High School. Tom attended St. Stephen's Anglican Church in Hurst and Emmaus Catholic Church in Lakeway.

He was predeceased by his parents, Nelda and Walter Cain, and wife, Christine Gmeiner Cain. He is survived by his brother Kevin (Leslie) Cain, sister Diane (Linley) Pearson, sister Margie (Steve) Redden, companion Bonita Herr Pope, and six nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, June 21, 2025, from 10 am until service starts at 11 am at The Hills Country Club, 401 Jack Nicklaus Drive, Austin, Texas, in the Flintrock Falls Ballroom.

In lieu of flowers, memorials in Tom's honor may be made to Special Olympics Texas at https://support.specialolympics.org/