- Date Of Birth: October 16, 1944
- Date Of Death: January 5, 2023
- State: Idaho
Tommy Allen Dean passed peacefully into the loving arms of his Savior Jesus Christ on Thursday, January 5th at 2:30 am surrounded by his family. He was 78 years old and is survived by his wife Jewell Dean, his son Jason and his wife LaNea Dean and family, and daughter Julie and her husband Daniel O’Brien and family. He is survived by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren who knew him as Papa and Pappers. He has also been survived by his nephews and nieces. He has been preceded in death by his parents Shelton David and Rosa Bell (Waddell), his siblings Forrest Dale, William (Billy), Seth, Shirley Abrahams, and Peggy Word, and his beloved grandson Jeffrey David O’Brien.
Tom was born in Tempe, Arizona on October 16, 1944, when his parents were in transition from central Texas on their way to Oregon. He lived in the Grants Pass, Oregon area through high school, thriving and loving hunting, football, and wrestling. After a year at University of Oregon, he signed up for the Navy and was assigned as a Communications soldier on the USS Midway aircraft carrier and nuclear submarine tender ship Proteus during the Vietnam war.
Truth be told, Tom moved to Aberdeen for one primary reason. Aberdeen has something that other places do not, a little thing called potato harvest. “Spud Harvest”, is not-coincidentally during prime elk hunting season in Idaho. As a schoolteacher, he was released for two weeks every year so that the farming families could get their harvest in. This emptied the school and enabled him to go do one thing he really loved, elk and deer hunting.
Tom also loved teaching and coaching. He was a football and wrestling coach for many years.
Tom retired from Aberdeen in 2007 and moved to Boise to be closer to his grandchildren. Julie had three boys – Jacob, Jeffrey, and Danny. Jacob married Tara Bloom and they have two daughters Emma and Susan. Danny married Hallie Ellis and they have a little boy Mordecai. Jeffrey was waiting in heaven for his Papa as he went home in a motorcycle crash at 18 in 2018 while attending Calvary Chapel Bible College in California. Jason had 3 children – Callie, Cody, and Corban. Callie married Isaac Nyhus and has a daughter Lucy and a son Oliver Tom. Cody married Alexis Douglass. Corban married Jade Ellis (twin sister of Hallie).
In Boise, Tom grew fruit trees, raised rabbits, made knives, tied flies, and of course kept hunting and fishing as long as he could. He attended every activity possible that his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were involved in. In 2016 Tom was in a bad ATV accident that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He did have some last injuries from the accident, but they discovered through the MRI that he had lung cancer and began treating it. It went into remission for a couple of years but came back and spread. His other great love and pastime was studying his Bible, especially in areas of Eschatology (end times study). Even though his cancer was growing, the Lord gave him reprieve from pain and sickness. While not very mobile in the end, he was happy, filled with peace, and full of the hope he had in Christ, that he would be with Him always.
His life verse was Romans 8:28 – “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Tom was a man’s man. He loved in action. He went the extra mile. He worked hard, played hard, and never let anything hold him back. He chose the hard things and reaped the rewards. He lived a life of thankfulness and gratitude. He loved his family passionately and all those around him as well. He never stopped telling people about Jesus and brought many to a saving faith in Christ. He trusted firmly in the knowledge that what he was going through was by the grace of God and would work together for good, for him, his family, and all those he loved so much over the years.
