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Tom McCart, son of Melva and Thomas McCart, was a resident of San Rafael since 1954. The McCarts were the 7th family to move into the Terra Linda Valley. Tom attended Bernard Hoffman, Vallecito and Terra Linda High schools. He was a talented athlete, starring on youth and school baseball, football, track, tennis and basketball teams. His passion was basketball. He played for Terra Linda, College of Marin, UC Davis, and later in semi pro and advanced men's leagues. Tom earned a degree in Economics from UCD and a Masters in Econometrics from California State University, San Francisco. He excelled in his career field of finance working for corporations such as ITEL, General Electric Capital, Ford Capital, Bank of America and Pac Bell. Tom met Carlene while playing on a co-ed softball team, Al's Carburetors and Catering. In 1985 they married and welcomed Travis, then Tyler, into their family. They lived in the Sun Valley Neighborhood of San Rafael for 27 years. Tom was happiest in his role as father to his sons. He was a patient, gifted teacher and coach who enjoyed himself most on the floor with Legos, in Sun Valley Park, in the dugout, on the field, in the gym on the beach or anywhere else with Travis and Tyler. He coached them through successful seasons in youth baseball, basketball and soccer programs. He helped them develop their own passions for surfing, cycling, and camping. Repeated visits to Hawaii and Graeagle, California relaxed and restored him. Tom retired in 2001. He worked part time as Varsity Basketball Head Coach for Marin Academy and later as a tax preparer. He was a devoted son to his parents in their last years, and loved his home, family, and community. He leaves behind his sons, Carlene, his sister Martha McCart Lombard Wells and her husband Ed, nieces Jennifer Lombard and Emily Lombard Hollet (Travis), nephew Ben Lombard and treasured aunt, Betty Saunders along with many special people who loved and supported their generous, humorous, intelligent friend. A Celebration of Life will be held in September. For more information please contact: carlenemccart@comcast.net
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Pamela Aubel (Branch)
I am shocked and speechless. A leader in your class, gone way to soon.
Diane Deen (Toci)
I am shocked and saddened for Carlene and Tom and Carlene's two sons. I actually worked with Carlene my last year with the City of San Rafael. I saw Tom playing with his sons one day on the playground of SunValley Elementary where I worked. This was after he had retired and he seemed so happy to be there playing with his boys. I couldn't help but think what a wonderful man he had become.
Mark Endicott
Wow!! Tom and I go way back to kindergarten in September of 1955 at Hoffman School..The 1st year it opened..We even lived on the same street Holly Drive in Terra Linda..I had a good visit with him at the last class reunion 4 years ago..Sorry to hear of his passing...
Susan Lochelt (Moore)
I am very sorry to hear of Tom's passing. My memory is Tom being my very first boyfriend in freshmen year at Terra Linda. We were in the same algebra class. Although our "romance" was VERY short lived, it will always remain in my memories. Tom and I led different paths......he the smart. focused athlete, me the "party girl" It looks like we both went on to do awesome things. He obviously left a mark on this world. Susie Moore (Lochelt)
Rick Edwards
My deepest sympathy to Toms family. Tom and I had many fun times together. Even though our backgrounds were totally different, he accepted me for who I was. I gave him great confidence on the basketball court from all the ass kickin' he handed me on his driveway court. I will always carry fond memories of him in my heart. I am a better person today for knowing my friend, Tom McCart.
We shall meet again.....
Ken Regalia '69
Even though I was a year behind in school, Tom and I had known each other since the grammar school. All of the hoopsters use to gather at Bernard Hoffman Elementary in the back for pick up hoop games as far back as I can remember.
Tom could really play basketbal and knew the game well. . I was always envious of him because he traded in his 10 speed bike for a motorcycle and would ride it to school. If I was lucky, I got a ride on the back.
My story of Tom relates to his self discipline as a TL sophmore when he decided to "fast" to make the weight and height limit for the TL C basketball team. Tom couldn't get his height down so he starved himself. But he had to lose weight he couldn't afford to lose. It was a one shot weigh in before the season started. After that, you could gain 400 lbs if you wanted to.
We took the team bus to Drake where the weigh ins were performed. Tom was weak from starvation. Anyway, Tom missed the limit by less than 6 ounces. He must have re weighed 4 times after making trips to the bathroom. He was crushed and devasted. The soph guys including Bob Maxwell, Carl Rowe and Lannie Shriener made the limit. We were all dead silent and sad for T Mac. (his nickname) You could hear a pin drop on the bus ride home with everyone trying to console Tom for his personal effort and at that time thinking we lost the opportunity for a shoe in for a championship run. Two Freshmen Rich Miram and myself were lucky enough to start with those three other 68 class sophmores. We won the C basketball championship that year. Tom gained weight back and went on to B basketball that same year were he flourished with the juniors on the team. We played B ball year around including MCAL summer leages.
Because I was a year behind, I never got the chance other than comingled TL varsity/junior var/ to play opposite Tom again.
Later on in our lives, we always got together for hoop pick up games. Playing with Tom was like playing with a brother, I knew where he would be positioned on the court so I could get him the ball so he could lauch and bury one of his patented 30 footers. That came naturally to him.
Sponsors Demastri Beer Distributing and later McDonalds organized /sponsored an open men's basketball team. At that time we had just graduated college T Mac returned from U.C Davis and he was living in San Rafael out in Sun Valley. We were both invited to play on these teams. We travled and played . all over Marin and San Francicso down at Keisar Pavillion in the SF park. I finally got my chance to play with my friend again.
With families and careers, we drifted apart and over time lost connection. I did crash the last 68 reunion and got to spend time with my friend to catch up.
When I visted the 68 reunion site just today, 9/7/13 , I was shocked to see that Tom had passed. Tears our welling in my eyes reading about the sad news. Much to early for him. Rest now my friend.
Our hearts and condolences goes out to his wife and family.
Ken Regalia
PS "Hey T Mac, when I get you the ball, just drill it down; lights out with this game, so we can all go home"
Blair Wardlaw (Hunt)
There will be a celebration of life for Tom on Friday, October 4 at St. Luke's Presbyterian Church from 3:00 – 4:00 pm. The church is at 10 Bayview Dr San Rafael, CA 9490. If you are in the area and wish to remember Tom, please join several of us who will be there to say goodbye to our treasured friend.
Blair Wardlaw Hunt, Carey Brink, Melinda Holloman Nichols, Maryellen Goepp Toll, Patricai Rhyne Baldwin, Jim Hahn and John Amberg
Blair Wardlaw (Hunt)
I was asked to speak at Tom's memorial on Friday, October 4, 2013. It was truly an honor for me to pay tribute to my wonderful friend. Friends, Jim Hahn, Carey Brink, John and Alicia Amberg, Melinda Holloman, Patricia Rhyne, Maryellen Goepp, Kris Kerns and Ken Regalia were also there to remember Tom. This is my speech:
A Tribute to Tom McCart
Good afternoon. My name is Blair Hunt, Blair Wardlaw to Tom and the rest of our mutual high school friends. Tom and I became friends at Terra Linda High School which we both entered as freshmen in 1964 and graduated in 1968. Terra Linda was a large school when we were students, 2500+ kids, 550 in our class alone. Needless to say, Tom and I were very lucky to find ourselves a wonderful group of friends to hang out with in this great big school. Several of us are here today to honor our good friend. This is what I remember and want you to know about Tom when he was one of us at Terra Linda High School.
Lots of girls had crushes on Tom. It was easy to understand. He was tall, blond, good looking, smart, funny and athletic. His sweetness and charm did not escape me either but I lost my chance for a date with Tom early on in our senior year and this is the story. It was homecoming time and he came over to visit me one afternoon about a week and a half before the annual dance. We were standing in my parent’s garage when he announced to me that he wanted to take my younger sister, Leslie, to the homecoming dance. I looked at him like he was crazy and said, “Tom, you cannot take my 14-year-old freshman sister to the homecoming dance - that would be just wrong.” And then he looked at me and said. “Well then, will you go with me to the dance?” As he is asking me this question, I thinking to myself that I must have the worst luck in the world because I had just accepted a date to Redwood High School’s Homecoming Dance with this guy which I only did because the Steve Miller Band was playing and I didn’t think anyone from T.L. was going to ask me, let alone Tom, who I would have gladly accepted an invitation. So I told Tom, no, I was really sorry but I already had a date so couldn’t go with him. That did it for me. He never asked me to another dance again but fortunately, we remained very close friends throughout the rest of our senior year.
The next thing most of you already know about Tom is that basketball was his passion in high school. There was always a basketball in Tom’s hands. He played ball for Terra Linda as a sophomore on the B basketball team and then junior and senior year on the varsity. He was number 30, a forward to Bruce Kilby’s center. I have newspaper clippings from January 1968 when he scored 13 points against Redwood and 10 points against Drake. Ken Regalia, a basketball friend from the class behind us, writes a beautiful tribute to Tom on our class website and I’ll read a few bits of it to you, “I knew where he would be positioned on the court so I could get him the ball so he could launch and bury one of his patented 30 footers that came naturally to him.” He further commented that Tom could really play basketball and knew the game well.
There were also intramural ball games at TL that Tom played with his some of his friends. The teams could only have 1 Varsity player on their roster and Tom was it for the team he played on with friends Jim Hahn, Lanny Schreiner, Carl Rowe and Paul Nyland. After the games, they would go down to Swenson’s in Northgate where our wonderful, crazy friend Bob Flautt worked and eat ice cream and write a press release for the games that were just played. Then they would give the press release to Tim Elliott, our Student Body President, who would read it over the loud speaker in the morning announcements. This went on until the dean, Dan Thorner, shut them down.
Tom didn’t limit himself to school ball; he organized The IBA league which was played at Bernard Hoffman Elementary and made up of guys who didn’t necessarily make the school teams but liked playing ball. They had team names and kept score. Tom thoroughly enjoyed sharing his love of the game with all his friends. I remember him spending hours for weeks in the pre season coaching our friend, Rick Edwards, so Rick could make the varsity team senior year. Sadly, Rick didn’t make the team but they continued to play ball in Tom’s driveway and Rick wrote on the class website in his tribute to Tom that he gave Tom great confidence on the basketball court from all the ass kickin' Tom handed Rick on the McCart driveway court.
On a personal note, I travelled with my friends to all but one game during our senior year to watch Tom play. He never let me live it down that I missed that one measly game.
When Tom wasn’t playing basketball, he was riding his Honda 90 around town to visit all his friends, make basketball practice or pick up a game somewhere. You have to remember that in the mid-late 60s when we went to high school, most kids drove their parent’s cars and only a few had their own wheels. I remember the day he got the motorcycle, October 23, 1967. I know this because it’s written on my Peanuts calendar. The day he brought it over to show me was the ill fated day he asked me to the homecoming dance and I reluctantly turned him down. That Honda was a big deal for Tom. Me too and we logged a lot of miles and memories on that bike.
Then there was the 60’s music. Need I say more? When we were in 8th grade, the Beatles hit the United States music scene. In the years following there were the Doors, the Stones, the Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin. Sgt. Pepper came out the end of our junior year and we started back to senior year with the Door’s “Light My Fire” on the radio. All along there was Motown – the Four Tops and the Temptations and Tom loved this music. So when The Chambers Brothers hit the radio waves in early 1968, Tom was all over their tunes. Then they came to San Francisco to play and so on the night before the Memorial Day weekend holiday in 1968, Tom and I and our good friends, Greg McCormick and Carey Brink drove into the city to the old Fillmore Auditorium and sat on the wooden floor to watch and listen to our Chamber Brothers play “Time has Come Today”. An added bonus that night – Ritchie Havens. Buffalo Springfield was slated to play too but I cannot remember them being there so I can’t claim we saw them. Heady times for the four of us friends and graduation was 2 weeks away.
We graduated on June 14, 1968 on the amphitheater stage at Terra Linda High School. Tom and Greg sat in the back row and I sat between them. I was in gold and they were in blue and when we stood up as graduates and raised our hats and switched our tassels to the other side, I looked up at those two tall, beautiful boys on either side of me and I thought, Blair, you are one lucky 17 year old girl to have such friends and to be standing next to them on this night..
Later that summer, as we were preparing to go off to college, I was invited to have dinner at the McCart’s. I always liked Mrs. McCart. She was really nice to me and I remember her compliments on my new boots that I wore that night and had just bought at Frank Moore in Northgate to take to college. The other thing I remember about her is her beautiful Christmas tree. It had little white lights all over it which I had never seen before and I vowed to myself that when I had own Chistmas tree, it would look like hers and I have kept that promise to myself. Tom knew I needed a bike to take to school so he asked his Mom if I could have Martha’s old bike. She said of course and we set to fixing it up in his driveway the following weekend. Tom left for UC Davis and I left for UC Santa Barbara a few weeks later in September. We wrote a few times and saw each other at Christmas vacation when we came home from school and John Amberg and I drove up to Davis to watch Tom play freshman basketball for Davis around New Years. After that, our lives all took new directions in college and beyond with new friends and activities and we saw each other infrequently. A few hours here and there at weddings and high school reunions but it was still always so good to see Tom and the rest of our friends. I last visited with Tom at our high school reunion in 2009. We joked about our scheduled meeting every 10 years. Most of our wonderful friends were there and we danced and sat together and talked and reminded ourselves of the days we spent sitting on the same amphitheater benches together during lunch and brunch breaks, trips to Stinson Beach on warm Saturdays in the spring, working on the class floats, and being 16 and 17 years old together. I have never forgotten any of it. When I wrote to all our friends of Tom’s passing, they all called or wrote and universally expressed their sadness upon hearing the news. There is something about the connections we make when we are young, they are lifelong feelings, just a few short years in high school we knew each other well but the love for these friends and the memory of our time spent together is forever and here we are 45 years later with still so much to say to each other. There is a Girl Scout round many of you might have heard, “Make New Friends”. Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold. Tom is my golden friend just as are all the others in our circle. We will never forget each other and Tom will always be remembered. Rest in peace my golden friend. Thank you.
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