- Date Of Birth: July 7, 1957
- Date Of Death: January 28, 2016
- State: Texas
Beloved husband, father, son, brother, uncle, cousin, friend.
Thomas Lee Wiese of Dallas, age 58, passed away on January 28, 2016 after suffering a heart attack. True to his generous nature, Tom was an organ donor and through his death helped save a life.
Born July 7, 1957 in Ashtabula, OH, Tom was the third child of Robert L. and Barbara P. Wiese. Growing up in rural Ohio, Tom acquired a lifelong love of the natural world, birding, astronomy, rock hounding, and outdoor sports including fishing, hunting, skiing, and rock climbing. After graduating at Edgewood High in Ashtabula Tom’s intellectual curiosity and interest in “how things worked” led him to follow in his father’s footsteps to earn a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Michigan where he pledged Theta Chi. He worked as an engineer for Westinghouse in Brazil and N. Carolina.
His decision to pursue an MBA from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, set the wheels in motion for his move to Dallas and finding love. While working as a summer intern at American Airlines, he met his bride-to-be, Karen L. Wilson. Her cubicle was near the coffee pot, and Tom drank a lot of coffee that summer! A year later in 1985, after completing his degree, he married Karen and they settled permanently in Dallas where Tom worked for many years as a financial analyst in the hotel industry for Embassy Suites, Integra, and FelCor Lodging Trust. Between Karen’s airline connections and Tom’s with hotels, they enjoyed many trips around the country and the world. In 2006, Tom made a sharp career turn returning to his science roots to teach middle and high school science. He taught in the charter system at North Hills School, Irving and Advantage Academy, Grand Prairie for seven years. He loved working with youth, sharing his knowledge, and seeking interesting ways to draw students into a love of science. In 2013, Tom began volunteering at the North Dallas Shared Ministries food bank. He fed his passion for science and teaching by becoming a docent at the Perot Nature and Science Museum where he reveled in interacting with fellow volunteers and the public, demonstrating all the “cool” hands-on displays and training new museum volunteers.
Throughout his life Tom was an optimistic, kind, compassionate, loyal and always thoughtful man. He could find the good in any person. Tom had many interests and knowledge about a vast array of topics. He was a good listener and added to any discussion, offering insights from whatever book he was reading at the time, or sprinkling in little known facts about nature, science and the world we live in.
Tom had a deep and abiding faith. Raised Methodist, he joined the Presbyterian church when he married Karen and was ordained as an elder, taught Sunday school to children and adults, staffed Cursillo retreats and enjoyed Bible study and discussion with several men’s groups. He and his family are currently members of Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church.
Tom leaves behind his wife Karen (Dallas, TX), daughter Kendra (Denton, TX), sons Kevin (Ann Arbor, MI) and Allen (Dallas), mother Barbara Wiese (Dallas), sisters Jo Johnson (Ann Arbor) and Carol Powers (Issaquah, WA), sisters-in-law Mary Caldwell (Dunbar, WV) and Ann Blankenship (Fayetteville, WV), brothers-in-law Tim Johnson (Ann Arbor), Dan Powers (Issaquah), Joe Caldwell (Dunbar), and Stephen Wilson (Dallas), uncles Tom Piper (Boston, MA) and Michael Wilson (Buffalo, NY), aunts Joan Keadle (Pittsburgh, PA) and Barbara Wilson (Buffalo), and many cousins, nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his father Robert Wiese and his brother Jay Wiese.
Saturday, March 5th, 2016, 2:00pm, Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church
