Obituary for Tom Stringer

Thomas A. Stringer, beloved husband, father, brother, uncle, cousin, and friend, died from metastatic prostate cancer on March 10, 2019 at home in his favorite chair with his family around him. He lived a life full of music, physics, learning, laughter, and love.

Tom was born to Vivian Lawanda Stringer and William Arthur Stringer in 1943 in Austin, Texas. When his father returned from WWII, his family moved to Joplin, Missouri and eventually settled in Overland Park, Kansas, where he spent his childhood. He received a PhD in Physics from the University of Kansas in 1970 on a NASA fellowship. He met his wife Carol while he was in graduate school and they married in 1971. They moved to New Mexico where Tom worked at White Sands, moved to New Jersey where Tom worked at Bell Labs, until making a home in Colorado Springs for a job at Kaman Sciences which became ITT Advanced Engineering and Sciences, where he worked for 35 years until he retired. After “retirement,” he taught physics as a lecturer at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs until 2017. He was proud that he spent his career doing and teaching physics, something he deeply loved at both a theoretical and practical level.

Tom’s family and friends were so important to him. He and his wife Carol were married for 48 years, and he loved her deeply. He loved and was so proud of his two sons Jonathan and Michael, his wonderful daughter-in-law Abbie, and delighted in his two granddaughters Ottilie and Estelle. He was the oldest child in his family — the “Ebub” — and is survived by his brothers Bill (Kozo) and Jim (Dana), his sister Nancy (Todd), and his many nieces, nephews, and cousins. He was involved in the Colorado Springs Classical Guitar Society, T&D (a philosophy discussion group), and a French conversation group. There may not be a cashier, concierge, or barista in Colorado that hasn’t been surprised when he remembered all the details of what they talked about months earlier.

Tom had an innate curiosity about the world. Some of his earliest memories involved puzzling over the question “why is there something rather than nothing?” That curiosity drove him to study fundamental physics and avidly read and write about philosophy. There were so many things that he wanted to learn or master that he constantly strove to make the most of his time. Whether it was squeezing in five minutes of playing music before leaving for an appointment, writing about speculations, musings, and ideas on his blog, or writing about atomic structure in his last days.

Tom could not imagine the world without music. When he was 16 years old he started playing guitar in rock and roll bands in the Kansas City area and continued playing in bands until he was in graduate school, where he became more interested in classical guitar. His interest in guitar ultimately expanded to many other instruments: lute, piano, Irish fiddle, classical violin, cittern, banjo, and mandolin. Tom was not only a lifelong student of music, but a teacher as well to both of his children and to anyone else that wanted to learn. He recorded 15 albums, including a cherished lullaby album for each of his granddaughters. Tom played in Blarney Pilgrim, Mountain Road Ceili Band, and the UCCS Physics Rock and Roll Band.

Tom will be sorely missed by his family, friends, and acquaintances — but his legacy will continue with the stories, love of learning, and music that he left with us. We invite you to continue reading his blog posts here and listen to his music at soundcloud.com/bigthickglasses.

Memorial contributions in Tom’s name may be made to the charity of your choice. A celebration of life will be held on April, 27th 2019.