PLSO The Oregon Surveyor Nov/Dec 2018

Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon |  www.plso.org 17 It was a rocky road. Our first job was do- ing a bunch of road design surveys on the McKenzie District on the Willamette NF. Tom was able to negotiate the job because the ranger there used to work for Tom’s dad on the Enumclaw District. We had no money and our first prob- lem came when we had to make payroll. An understanding banker in Corvallis let us borrow against our receivables, and from that time forward banks became our funding arm. We never seemed to have a problem generating receivables, but had a never ending problem collect- ing. It was always a tossup as to whether our company would survive. Between cash flow problems and getting enough work, things would get tense. A big break came in the early 70s when Tom got a lead that Sunriver (SR) Proper- ties, the large resort south of Bend, might be looking for a new firm to do their sur- vey work. Again Tomput on his marketing hat and spent most of one summer driving back and forth trying to sell our services. Things were not looking good and Tom was about to write the effort off as a lost cause. Late that summer we were sitting on a log out on some slope staking job talking of our future. Work in the Willa- mette Valley always got slow in the winter, and I think our crew was down to just he and I. We agreed that if something didn’t emerge that fall we would throw in the towel, split up and go our separate ways. Shortly after that SR called and said they were desperate to have a site survey done for a new condo project and their present surveyor was not responding. We were on the job the next morning and had drawings to them within a week. The SR development was in a major expansion mode and needed lots of survey work done. Our prompt delivery of the site survey got our foot in the door. We not only didn’t shut down, we set up another office at SR and hired crews just to han- dle their work. Tom worked closely with David Smith Mapping to map the entire 5,500 acres that SR owned. That required running a complete horizontal and ver- tical control net over the property. Tom handled all of that plus many more con- trol surveys we did for David Smith over the years. They included jobs around Or- egon, in Montana and Idaho. Mostly for the Bureau of Reclamation, and Corps of Engineers. Tom loved those jobs as it engaged his mind and put his geodetic skills to work. In 1968 I was offered a job with SR to co- ordinate all their development work. Tom and I negotiated a fair buyout agreement and I left the company. He merged MBA with Timberland Services in Albany which was renamed Timberland McCullough & Assoc. That company was made up of sev- eral partners, one of which was Tom. After some years, there was a disagreement be- tween Tom and the other partners and Tom found himself no longer employed. He moved his family fromCorvallis to Salt Lake City where he went to work for an engineering company. Shortly after that he started (or bought out) Intermountain Aerial Mapping and Surveying. As such he did many mapping jobs throughout the intermountain region. He really liked the Salt Lake area, but I always had the feeling he missed his old friends back in Oregon. Tomwas an advanced downhill skier. My wife, I and friends skied many times with him at Bachelor. One of Tom’s favorite activities was to organize a large skiing get togethers at SR over spring break. He would rent a house and fill the place with our skiing crowd. The first attempt was in a small SR rental and we probably had six or eight couples staying there. The water froze, pipes broke, some smoked a little pot, and all in all it was a great week. The owners would not rent to us again. Tom would assign who would prepare which meals; assemble all the costs, split it up so all were paying the same amount. I was a crappy skier and Tom would always talk me into going on slopes that were way beyond my limited ability. One time at Chrystal Mtn in Washington, I was put in a situation where I couldn’t get back to the lodge. The terrain was simply beyond my skill level. A friendly ski instructor guided me down and gave me a free ski lesson to boot. Space doesn’t allow me to go into much more detail. In closing, I will share some of the last times Tom and I had together. Distance between Salt Lake and Redmond didn’t allow us to meet frequently—usu- ally only when Tom was passing through visiting family or we would arrange to meet somewhere between here and SLC. We spent hours on the phone going over the good times (and bad) we had togeth- er. Tom always liked to bring up some of the more humorous events. The sto- ries always got better with each telling and we would laugh til the tears ran. Those conversations made our day. Af- ter Tom retired he and Nancy, his wife, were living in Park City, Utah. He was the caregiver for Nancy as she was suffering from Alzheimer’s. During our frequent phone conversations, I could tell some- thing was not clicking. Tom would forget things, and he had a hard time keeping a train of thought. They decided to sell and move to Nashville to be near his daugh- ter. Shortly after being there, Tom was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. They were put in a care facility, and things went downhill from there. I will never get over seeing someone so vibrant and outgoing just slowly fade away. Nothing could have been done to prevent what was inevita- ble. It is what it is. We can always keep him in our memory and thus relive all the good times we all had together both as friends and fellow surveyors. Always remember that good friends are hard to find. I was lucky to have found my best friend in Tom. x In Memoriam We can always keep him in our memory and thus relive all the good times we all had together both as friends and fellow surveyors. Always remember that good friends are hard to find. I was lucky to have found my best friend in Tom.