A Life of Many Shades Comes to a Close

A week ago today I received a phone call from a friend and client that Thomas Tomoser (Sr.) had passed away, and this evening my wife and I attended his funeral. What we experienced of his life’s story deserves a much fuller expose, so here is my best effort to provide that.

In describing Tom it’s actually hard to know where to begin since he wore so many hats throughout his life’s journey. I know I only know a portion of those from the stories he told, my experiences with him over the years, and also what was shared at his memorial. My introduction to Tom was back in 2000 when he contacted Tesco Productions to work with his music projects. Over the years those projects were wide and varied, from single vocals over a music track to full band recordings of the many songs he had written to reworks of cover songs. A few of the more special sessions had his and Rosmery’s young daughter in the studio singing on her own or in duet with him. Tom was consistently putting up new and reworked material on CD Baby under his record label Lone Eagle Records. He involved a number of other musicians that otherwise I likely would not have met. We also recorded radio programs that had local airing. As time passed the calls became fewer and the trips to the studio less often until finally it was just not feasible anymore.

But music wasn’t all I experienced Tom through. He had a love for wire controlled airplane models. This was something he had done with his father growing up and he still had some of those models. He would ask me at times to help him fly them, but I was never at the controls which would have been quite beyond my skills. We would go to a local park in Ralston that still has a circular asphalt track for flying line controlled planes so he could practice and then tweak/repair the planes. We even went to a competition out of state one weekend so he could show his old models and compete.

Yet the list of shared experiences is long. I was honored to attend the Naturalization Ceremony for his wife Rosmery – my first and only time to witness that moving event. There were a number of birthday parties with his family, friends and other musicians, live music events including a piano recital performance by their daughter and many other occasions of connection I know I’m not remembering. In conversation with one of his sons at his funeral I told him I’ve always said if there was a song that would capture Tom’s life it would be “My Way”. He sang that song with gusto and strength, and it was fittingly heard in the room displaying a small portion of his many music and media productions. Thank you Tom for bringing a lot of variety and friends into my life. You will be missed.