I once read that most people have 3 or 4 true friends, best friends, pals, buddies or relationships that are unbreakable and lifelong. A genuine kinship that goes deeper than family in most cases. Today I lost one of them. I sit here pecking away at my laptop trying to sum up words to describe Tim and at the same time console his family and friends and the loss were dealing with. What I know for sure, is while that he’s gone from us I smile knowing he’s done with his fight against cancer. Gone but never to be forgotten to me or my family. Without him directly impacting my life I’d not be where I am at today…

Tim was a Sailor in the aviation Navy, commonly referred to as a brown shoe. Spanning two generations of service in the Navy when he joined during the Viet Nam era to see it progress to a cold war footing and ultimately a peacetime force. His service directly impacted the Navy and ultimately our country still to this day.

Tim was a farmer. Coming home and settling back into his family home in a quiet farming town surrounded by fields and orchards while raising cattle and hawking pumpkins and gourds and a million corn stalks to soccer moms every fall was something he loved. To sit on the quarterdeck (his front porch) and watch him gaze over his land, barn and fields you quickly realize this was a man who was in touch with everything & everyone in his world.

Tim was a son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, friend, recruiter, sales guru, sea lawyer, conservationist, writer, poet, jack of all trades master of none, wood worker, sailor, and about a million other things that made him one of a kind. What sticks out of all the things he was, is what he was not. Selfish! He gave freely in his time, advice, love and knowledge to all he came across. In my 20 years of working with, knowing and ultimately spending some of his last hours with him he loved life, loved his family, loved his country and loved his family farmstead.

Words won’t ever fill the void we all feel with the passing of one of my best friends but as he would say, “carry on”. I shall do just that, taking the wise words and memories of conversations and lessons learned from him to heart. I told him often that without him I’d be in a totally different station in life. Never has one single person affected me so profoundly- I truly am a better man for having spent time and embracing his mentorship in military bearing, business and life.

Carry on Senior Chief, rest easy and know we have the watch now. You stand relieved!

Carry On