Birth date: Oct 10, 1956 Death date: Jun 3, 2015
Thomas Harold Tarkanish(Tom), 58, passed peacefully into Eternal Life on June 3, 2015 at his home in Miami. His is survived by his wife, Pat Tarkanish, her children, Dawn Garcia and Robin Harviel, and their loving families, and by Read Obituary
I will miss u my brother. we did more shit together went everywhere partied like there was no tomorrow, I can tell stories about us for days. you may have gone on before ur time, but you got the most out of life.You worked hard and partyed harder. brian it was a green road runner the other car was orange. I can go on an on but I won't. love you an miss you. (young FIREHOSE Tony) See u when I see you love an respect until then your bud STASH (Fill).
Tom was a year younger than me but we all grew up together in our neighborhood along 5th Street in Saddle Brook, NJ. I probably have about 1,000 memories of him of all the fun things we did as kids and I'll high light a few of them.
Of course there was all the football games on the Desplat's front lawn and all the baseball games behind Thermo Electric. Tom was a very good athlete in both sports but was probably a better football player. I think he was a defensive captain on the HS team his senior year. He had issues with his knees because he was growing too fast(I think that is what he told us) I can remember going with his mother to watch him play football when he was in 7th or 8th grade for the town team & the game was in Weehawkin, NJ. The field was located within the circular entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel which was unique setting to watch a football game.
He had a round circular built in pool behind his garage which we swam in all the time. When he asked his parents if all the kids could swim in pool, if it was a "yes" he would pull the shade down in his room as the signal and we would all run home to get our bathing suits.
We used to sleep in tents in his back yard and to this day he is the only person I ever knew that ate mustard with a spoon(which he did when we slept out). We also built a tree fort in his back yard and for some crazy reason his father built a "shooting range" in his basement where we shot BB guns through a foundation wall into the crawl space under the house addition. We had targets just like the carnival.
The fastest I ever was in a car was with Tom. I think he had a bright orange Road Runner hot rod and once he took me on Route 80 to show me how fast it could go. We landed up racing another car and I think we went 115 MPH. It was super loud and I was pretty scared.
I could go on and on describing the many memories I have of Tom. He was a good friend to grow up with. We lost touch once he moved to Florida. I last spoke to him about 2 years ago when I was informed of his illness and there was a request for his childhood friends to contact him. When he spoke he sounded just like I remembered. I don't like it that I'll never have the opportunity to see or talk to him again but i'll always have the great memories of a good guy and childhood friend.
Brian Shortino, Saddle Brook, NJ
PS: The picture of him posted on the funeral website is just like I remembered.
Prayers for comfort!!!! He is in God's hands.
This is from a friend of Tom from CIT.:
I got this e-mail from one of our colleagues and I thought I should share:
"Like all of our colleagues I have many happy memories of dear Tom, all of which I will carry forward with me.
I have lost track of the times that things seemed to be difficult and then Tom turned up and with his straight-forward logic and endless positiveness he turned the team and the situation around.
If Tom had any failings it was only that he wanted to do ‘stuff’ himself because he was a very ‘hands-on’ person. One memory of Tom was his frustration at seeing an Indonesian mechanic holding a compressor wash lance with the spray missing the core of the engine, so Tom just ‘bear-hugged’ the little guy and the lance and directed them where he wanted the fluid to go!
And Tom had his own way of closing car doors! I am only glad that we ever rode together in rentals!
I learned a lot from Tom and I will miss him. Lots!:
I pray that God gives your family comfort and peace during this painful time. You are in my prayers. Nancy Friend (Leigh Garcia's Mom)
