Thomas Alan Wood was born on December 20, 1938, in Des Moines, Iowa, in the same hospital his sister, Janice, had died of leukemia two months earlier. He was a blessing and a comfort to his parents, Herb and Irene Wood. He attended schools in Davenport, including his freshman year of college at St. Ambrose College for men, where he excelled in music and drama, winning several leading roles in school productions. He enjoyed singing in church choirs also. Desiring an engineering degree, he transferred to the University of Oklahoma, in Norman, for his sophomore year. He also entered the Air Force Officers Training School in pursuit of becoming an Air Force pilot and then became an ROTC commander at the university. In the fall of 1958, Tom's dorm mates took him to a party at the Baptist Student Union where he met his sweetheart, Pat Waganer. She grew up in Norman and led him to her church where he was saved and baptized. She wooed him with her homemaking skills, including sewing up the holes in his socks, and they became a couple. They were married on June 6, l960. They would have been married 66 years. Pat graduated in l961 and continued working while Tom completed his degree in Sanitary Science Engineering. He then entered pilot training at Big Spring, Texas, and learned to fly T-38's before being assigned to Spangdahlem AF base in Germany as a second lieutenant. The couple traveled throughout Europe and were active in the base chapel activities. Pat played the organ and piano for services. Their first child, Angelee Michelle, was born in Bitburg, Germany in l965, and they were transferred stateside to Clinton-Sherman AFB in Oklahoma in 1967, where Timothy Scott was born. After five years in the AirForce and as a grade of Captain, Tom decided a life of frequent moves was not for him and he moved his family to Jefferson City, Missouri, to become a supervisor at Chesebrough Ponds manufacturing plant. They loved their church, First Baptist, where Tom served as a deacon secretary and as a member of the Personnel and Budget Committees. He was also President of the Junior Chamber of Commerce and ran for the city council. They remained in Jefferson City for 21 years. In 1989, Tom was offered the position of Production Manager at Merck Pharmaceuticals Animal HealthCare Division in St. Louis, where he remained until he retired in 2002. Upon retiring, he and Pat began a life of "snowboarding" and spent 13 winters at a resort in Mesa, Arizona. Tom liked gardening and yardwork and caring for his automobiles, and he loved traveling, camping and hiking. He was good at planning fun trips for the family and made certain they went to 49 states, including Hawaii. He was definitely a family man. He loved them and they knew it. He and Pat joined the First Batist Church of Fenton, in 2012 and became active in Sunday School and church choir. The loving church family befriended and supported them, and they will always be grateful.