A son. A twin brother. A skier. A founder. A friend.

Aspen, 1970

Tom was born May 3, 1970 in Aspen, Colorado, and grew up with a twin brother (Tad, twenty minutes older) and a younger brother three years his junior. He learned to ski when he was about eight and absolutely loved it — racing slalom recreationally, usually in Snowmass.

He worked many different kinds of jobs growing up — ski shops, a drug store, a hotel. He enjoyed working with lighting systems for stage productions of all kinds. In the summer he worked for Dance Aspen, helping transform the school gymnasium into a professional dance stage where he managed the lights for the shows.

Fort Collins, 1996

In 1989 he attended the University of Southern Colorado for a year and then transferred to Colorado State University, graduating in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in business.

After graduating, he started his own business — InfiNet Consulting Group, Inc. His timing was perfect. The dot-com boom was in full swing and he took full advantage of it, offering a host of computer services, including website development and on-site support for local businesses.

In April 2000 he built a memorial website for the victims of the Columbine tragedy. In the summer of 1998 he had built a relief website for victims and families of the terrible flooding that hit Fort Collins.

Tom loved to visit Yellowstone National Park. He did lots of camping and mountain biking. He was spontaneous and always had a smile on his face.

Mayo Clinic, 2001

After only a few years of running the business, he started having problems with his left hand. He loved coffee and noticed he couldn't hold a coffee cup steady. After months of frustration and many different diagnoses, he went to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona to seek help.

After several painful visits and a spinal tap, the doctors isolated the symptoms to two possibilities — ALS or Guillain-Barré syndrome. We were praying for the latter. It turned out to be ALS.

Tom died within a year of his diagnosis, on May 14, 2002.