Tom will be dearly missed. I worked with Tom at Pearson for many years where his deep insight into Unix systems was deeply appreciated. I can't count the number of times I'd seek out his assistance with some obscure shell scripting "need" and he'd come up with not just "a" solution, but often dozens. From memory. Then he'd ask a few pointed questions about why you wanted the data, what format it needed to be in, etc., and tinker with the "best" solution a little bit and condense it down into a single line of code that would do what you'd been trying to do with an entire page of code.
I'll miss his stories about his days in the Marines, his work as an activist, his life on the farm, and the dry sense of humor with which he told them all...
