Thomas Joseph Gross

November 11, 1950 - September 12, 2006
 






Vietnam

Picture's taken at Tom's Mass
Click on each picture below enlarge
 

 
 

 Reading's by Al Cordova


 Tom's good friend

From the Book of Ecclesiastes

There is an appointed time for everything,
  and a time for every thing under the heavens.

A time to be born, and a time to die;
  a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant

A time to kill , and time to heal:
  a time to tear down, and a time to build.

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
  a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them;
  a time to  embrace, and a time to be far from  
  embraces

A time to seek and a time lose;
  a time to keep, and a time to cast away

A time to rend, and a time to sew.
  a time to be silent, and a time to speak.

A time to love, and a time to hate;  a time of war,
  and a time of peace.

The word of the Lord

 From the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans

Brothers and sisters:
No one lives for oneself,
   and no one dies for oneself.
For if we live, we live for the Lord,
   and if we die, we die for the Lord;
   so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's
For this is why Christ died and came to life,
   that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Why then do you judge your brother?
Or you, why do you look down on your brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God
   for it is written:
As I live, says the Lord, every knee
   shall bend before me,
   and every tongue shall give praise to God.
So then each of us shall give an accounting of himself
   to God.

The word of the Lord.
 

 

Eulogy for Thomas J. Gross


Pete Lee
Tom's Attorney & good friend
Good Morning;

My name is Pete Lee.  On behalf of Tom's family and friends, I would like to thank you for coming this morning and we welcome you to this celebration of life of Tom.  I have known Tom for over 20 years.  When I first met Tom in the early 1980's.  He consulted me professionally as a lawyer. 

Over the years I worked for Tom on a variety of matters.  As I worked for him, we became friends and my respect for him grew.  I knew him as a man of principle, a man of commitment and a man dedicated, loyal and loving to his family, his friends and to Veterans everywhere.

His principles and commitment were to doing a good job, the best he could and he expected others to do the same.  He held everyone to that standard.  He expected it of the schools he sent Julia to.  When Aspen Valley wouldn't provide the services she needed, he asked me to help him make them do the job they were required to do and they did.

When employers wouldn't extend their hand to Veterans in need of jobs, he would change their minds.  When the State of Colorado wouldn't recognize the needs of disabled veterans, he held them accountable and made the State do its duty.  Working with Tom on that case provided me with one of the most satisfying moments in my career.  Together, we forced the State of Colorado to recognize post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a handicap for which reasonable accommodation is required by employers.  There are Vets today who hold their jobs because of the trailblazing work Tom did.  We all owe him a debt of gratitude.

I believe the defining experience of Tom's life was his military service.  He was young kid of 18 when he went in.  He was a wounded Veteran when he came out, wounded in body and in spirit.  For better and for worse, Vietnam and the military experience affected Tom for the rest of his life.  It provided the impetus and inspiration for his career.

His job with the Colorado Job Service was to help other Vets get jobs.  Though he worked for all Vets, Tom's singular talent was helping the Veterans who were struggling the most; the one with wounds like his.  Tom was assigned to find jobs for those who were having the toughest times.  I suspect some of you here today are here because Tom helped you when you were in need.  He brought the same principles to the job of helping Vets that he demonstrated in his own life.

So now as we celebrate his life and tell him goodbye, we can all say thanks to him for a life in which a lot of good was done for a lot of people.

 Thank you God for giving us this man, Tom Gross; we are all better off for having known him.

Picture's taken at the Reception
Click on each picture below enlarge

A Note of Thanks

On behalf of Julia, Justine, Ariah and myself, I want to thank all of you that have been good friends to Tom over the years.  A special thanks to Timmy Henning and Al Cordova for hanging in there with him all those years.  I also want to thank everyone that came to visit Tom since August.  It meant a lot to Tom to see everyone and he enjoyed chatting about old times.

A special thanks to Judy Milner for all her days and nights spent at his hospital bedside and Lynette Snyder for her endless days and nights of taking care of Tom with me at his house when he went home on Hospice care.  And to Shermie Wiehe for all his time and energy that went in to designing this webpage for Tom, Julia and I.

And most of all I want to say how proud I am of our daughter Julia for being so strong through all of this, this is truly the hardest thing I have ever been thru in my life and I know how hard it has been for her at such a young age.  She has been my strength. I know how proud her dad would be of her.

I know he's watching over her & his grandchildren.

Thank you for all your prayers.

May God Bless each and everyone of you.

Jill Jantzen

Email comments to Jill & Julia > jilljantzen@wiehes.com