Thomas N. Keefer, Sr Obituary

Thomas N. Keefer, Sr attended West Grand High School in Kremmling, CO. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Thomas N. Keefer, Sr.

Graduation Year	Class of 1962
Date of Passing	Jun 06, 2009
About	Thomas N. Keefer (Tom), passed away June 10, 2009 in Sterling, Virginia not far from his home in Lucketts, where he and his wife Sally Leroux Keefer have resided since 1986. He was born in 1944 in Colorado where he was adopted as an infant by the late Nelson E. and Rachael Quinn Keefer. He spent most of his life as a youngster in Parshall, Colorado, graduating from West Grand High School (WGHS) in 1962. Tom attended Colorado State University (CSU) where he studied engineering, graduating with high honors. He received a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1967, an M.S. in Civil Engineering (Hydraulics) in 1969 and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Hydraulics, Hydrology and Fluid Mechanics) in 1971. As a graduate student, Tom began working in the Universityâ€™s hydrological lab and spent one summer installing monitoring equipment in Wyoming for the United States Geological Survey (USGC). During his undergraduate years, he and Sally Leroux (a fellow WGHS classmate and CSU undergrad) renewed their high school friendship and married in 1966. Upon receipt of his doctorate, he, Sally and four year old Tom Jr. moved to Slidell, LA where he worked at the NASA Test Facility in Bay St. Louis, MS. In 1977 he joined another USGS employee in Northern Virginia to help form Sutron Corporation which has become a leading provider of hydrological, meteorological and oceanic monitoring products, systems, software and services. He served as Vice President of Software Support Services, Vice President of the Water Resources Division, Vice President of the Integrated Systems Division and most recently (since 1997) Vice President for Special Projects. His work with Sutron took him all across the United States and around the world, with the opportunity to travel and work with agencies in such countries as China, India, England, Kenya, Romania, Dominican Republic and Afghanistan as well as in-state agencies as the Corp of Engineers and USGS. In January of this year he retired as a regular employee and began working â€œpart time.â€ This gave him more time to spend with family, friends, his new Harley Davidson and of course many fun projects. Tom was interested in many vocations and sports: he was an amateur aviator, built an airplane, bicycled centuries, was a scuba diver (with his son Tom, Jr.), built and repaired clocks, and had a wood shop that was the envy of all that knew him. He was a gentle, happy, and caring person. Probably the happiest and most satisfying part of his life was working alongside Sally to maintain their home and 12 acres north of Lucketts. He loved the accomplishment of mowing the fields and was most happy with a self drawn plan and tools in hand to create a deck, new tool bench, remote control airplanes, office cupboards or clock. Tom died after an accident at Sutron, the company he helped found and where he spent most of his career. His friends, colleagues and co-workers will miss his â€œcan doâ€ attitude, guidance, expertise and humor. As a good friend to all in his own community, he was a member of the Lucketts Ruritan serving as treasurer for many years. He leaves in the good hands of many friends, his wife Sally, his son Tom Jr. and wife Terri, and eleven year old grandson Spencer Thomas and ten year old granddaughter, Ragan Hope. People around the world that have known him through work or play are saddened by his unfortunate death. A special informal event honoring his life was held at the Lucketts Community Center in Lucketts, VA on Saturday, June 20.