Page created by: The Clavin Family

Thomas A. Clavin died peacefully on February 14, 2016 after nearly 21 years of battling Parkinson's Disease (PD). He was surrounded by his family and loving caregivers in the final days, weeks, and moments of his life. Throughout his life, both before and after the Parkinson's Disease diagnosis, Tom was a fun-loving person - he thoroughly looked forward to spending time with his children and family, he loved the outdoors and wildlife, and he was satisfied knowing that he was living the remainder of his life in a beach community that was the setting for many of his most important life moments. Although PD took many aspects of Tom away from his loved ones earlier than expected, Tom always found a way to love his family, his wife, his friends and caregivers. Despite not being able to physically laugh at the end of his life, one only needed to see Tom's classic eye roll to know his wry sense of humor was well intact.

Tom was born in Sterling, Illinois on August 20, 1946 to Alvin Clavin and Lucille Clavin, as the younger brother of Michael Clavin (Reisterstown, MD). Tom grew up in the small town of Sterling, which was filled with the nostalgic setting of agrarian and industrial americana. Tom received his undergraduate education at Benedictine University (Lisle, IL) and followed on with graduate studies in computer science at Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN). In the late 60s, Tom took his dreams west and settled in the South Bay community of the Greater Los Angeles region, taking a job in information technology at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). Tom continued his education, earning a MBA from Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA) in 1983. Increasing career ambitions and growing family responsibilities led to Tom moving on to work at Candle Corporation. Candle was later acquired by IBM, where Tom finished out his career and took disability leave in 2003 to focus on his health and family.

Shortly after following the California dream, Tom also happen to find the love of his life, Judy Fong. At that time, Judy was a close work colleague at CSC who quickly became part of Tom's intimate social circle. After falling head over heels for Judy, Tom learned the meaning of patience as Judy followed her dreams to work in Italy for a year and brought Tom along for brief vacations around western Europe. Patience paid off as Tom and Judy were married in 1983. Tom's growing family, with Christopher soon to come in 1984 and Shayna in 1989, became a focus of his life. Boy scout meetings and hikes, dance practices, soccer camps, soccer refereeing, orchestra and band practices, and thousands of miles in a minivan with family in tow were steps toward some of Tom's proudest moments.

In 1995, Tom was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. With this terrifying and life-changing diagnosis, Tom chose to fight the disease and its debilitating symptoms with the best medicine and science had to offer. But despite this internal strength and the seemingly limitless support of his wife, Tom was human, humble, and pragmatic. The progression of the disease is well documented by Tom and Judy's words in their annual Christmas letters, starting in 2000 when Tom decided to publicly announce his fight: "Tom has been waging a quiet war, minimizing driving" (2000), "cutting back outdoor activities, finding it hard to keep up with the family and work" (2001), "the latest symptom is 'freezing', where I cannot move, work is being impacted, downsizing becomes an option, this changes how I look at work, the question of 'if I take disability' is becoming 'when I take disability leave'" (2002). Tom took disability leave to focus on his health in 2003, adopting an aggressive physical therapy regimen, noting that "I have not given up the fight!... I have to persevere." (2003)

In 2005, Tom demonstrated the meaning of putting one's pride aside for the comfort of his family by sitting out a reunion with Judy's family in Panama. In 2006, Tom decided that he was going to attempt to stop the dramatic decline in his health, enrolling in a research study at UC San Francisco to implant a stimulator in his brain to alleviate PD symptoms. Tom's words in 2006 and 2007 represented some of the most positive moments of his battle: "daily quality of life has been arrested from its decline. I am still truckin."(2006), "I have positively and successfully cut meds in half, involuntary muscle movement is gone, quality of life is better than before. I am still on truckin". (2007) Despite this improvement, PD continued to progress. Tom's words in Christmas letters effectively end in 2007, representing a shift to the most difficult struggles in Tom and Judy's battle. In his subsequent years, Tom learned humility and demonstrated coming to terms with one's own mortality, Judy exemplified selflessness, and Tom's family grew to learn how to call upon a village to support their husband and father. Tom loved his family, his wife, and together they were the generals in his army at war with Parkinson's Disease.

Tom is survived by his wife, Judy; his son, Christopher; and his daughter, Shayna.

The family would like to thank all of the loving family, friends, and caregivers that helped Tom and Judy during their fight with Parkinson's Disease. Our deepest appreciation to Tom's close caregivers and the loving team at Silverado Beach Cities Memory Care Community (Redondo Beach, CA).