RIP - Tom Parham

Thomas M. Parham, Jr.

b. : ??/?? 1931

d. : 16 November 2008

. I met "Dr. Tom" when my company acquired a slow-release Nitrogen business unit in the mid-1990's. Tom had done the original R&D work for the technology, and indeed his name was, and is, on a number of patents for the manufacture of the compounds. He was in his 60's then, and shortly after joining us, he retired. But he stayed on with us as a consultant, and I took several business trips - to Oregon, to Toronto, and to Ohio - with him. . If you look up "gentleman" in the dictionary, you'll find Dr. Tom's picture right beside it. He loved his family, he loved his hometown, he loved his work, and he loved his Virginia Tech Hokies. He had the ability to find some subtle, mild humor in everything in life. I will miss his warmth and his wit. . But this post is also about technology. Tom finally fully retired in the early 2000's. I kept in touch with him by e-mailing him a "funny" every year or so. He'd respond and we'd catch up on who was doing what. . A few years ago (in 2007 apparently), when I asked him how he was doing, he said, "Not too good." He said he had cancer - I forget what type - and the doctors gave him a year or so to live. A while later (after November 2008 apparently), when I sent him a funny, he didn't answer. I was scared as to what that meant. . I had his telephone number, but I avoided calling his house for fear of what I might learn. And that's the way things stayed until the other day, when I said to myself, "Self. If Tom has passed away, you can probably find the funeral home's notice of it by using the right searchwords to google it." It took me a couple tries, but I finally found it here. And although I'm sad he's passed on, I'm happy to have met him, worked with him, and know a little bit more about his life via his obituary. . I'm also glad we have things like Google, FaceBook, and online obituaries now. I have another "RIP technology" story to tell (which involves Wikipedia), but it will save for another post. Sadly, I have no photograph of Dr. Tom, as our trips took place in the days before the use of digital cameras. But if I come across a pic of him taken by a co-worker, I will post it.