Nancy Young

  No words can say how Sad I feel for his loved ones.  but he is not in pain and I was so happy to see him at our Renuion.    We have lost so any great Generals in the Year and Tom will always be in our Heart and soul for what being that Great General.  His life is over here but what a great life he will be having with Our Lord and all his friends Rest In Peace .  He will be so missed by everyine whose life had touch. 

 Nancy Young

Linda Mitchell (Birk)

Tommy had the swagger that comes with being a good-looking heart throb (my boyfriend in the 8th grade!), a superb athlete and the lead crooner with our popular home-grown band, the Classics.  But there's more to him ... He said in our later years that he was proud of excelling academically in college and graduate school.  At our 45th reunion, he wanted to apologize to specific people he had shown little interest in and may have been rude to during high school {Mrs. Lundy, please excuse grammar flaw with prepositions}.  Tom was one of the people extremely involved in planning the eight reunions prior to our 50th.  Offering such time and energy through the years was a gift to our entire class.  The year our 50th was planned, he had other family-related priorities but made a point to attend after launching his daughter, Kaitlyn, to college. Tom suffered significant losses along his way ... like all of us have or will.  I saw him 10 days before he died.  He was sick but unfailingly gracious and surrounded by many who loved him. Fair Winds and Following Seas, shipmate.

Philip Marcum

To the degree that the Class of 1964 can be compared to a fine tuned precision watch with hundreds of moving cogs, springs, jewels, each student representing one of the parts, Tom Borg was surely one of the largest cogs in the watch.  I knew him primarily in an atheletic context.  Who amongst us can ever forget number 44 running a sweep or taking a pitchout speeding past defensive opponents en route to a touchdown and usually a victory followed.  Less well known was his prowess on the track team.  He was lightening fast and competed in the 100 yard dash and on our relay teams and with his stalwart contributions we won the 1964 State Championship.  He was a bit of a rennaissance man and I remember his singing with "The Classics" at a student assembly and thinking "what doesn't this guy do well?"  When I think of Tom, I see him cooly sauntering down the hallway in his letter jacket always with a big smile on his face and usually a kind word to his fellow classmates.  While our paths diverged after High School, it is clear from his obituary that his greatest accomplishments were yet to come -- loving husband and father, service to his Nation as a soldier, successful businessman, supporter of his communiy and loyal friend to those close to him.  I missed talking with him at our 2014 Class Reunion and was surprised to receive an email from him a few days later lamenting the fact.  I replied that we would catch up at the  next reunion.  Now that will have to await the afterlife.  Tom will always be in our hearts and minds as one of the great Generals of Lafayette, but I expect he will be most delighted to be greeted by the words "Well done my good and faithful servant."    May You Rest in Peace!

Jim Kurz

TOM BORG IN THE THIRD GRADE

Although Tom Borg was "in the in crowd" and I was in "the out crowd", his passing stirred up eddies in the rivers of my mind of days long gone and memories of Tom. Not from our high school days, but of memories of the days when I was skinny and small and Tom and I were in the third grade. This was in Poughkeepsie, New York. There, we went to Spachenkill grade School. (Spachenkill roughly translates from Dutch in to English as "Babbling Brook".)  Mrs. Smith, our teacher, had a mustache. Our Dads were both named Arthur and were fellow IBMers.

Like many kids in the third grade, we didn't care about much about things other than sports, one of which was boxing.  Maybe we liked boxing because Monday night boxing matches were televised on "The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports". Once, while Tom and I were at classmate Mike Scott's house, Tom and I thought it would be a great idea to reenact one of the Monday night fights. 

We put on the sets of boxing gloves that Mike had and started sparring.  However, unbeknown to us, Mike had pounded a small nail with a big head into the padding of one of the gloves.  Tom and I threw punches- straights, hooks and uppercuts-with all the mighty power of our nine years.  When Tom landed a punch on my nose, it started bleeding.  That's when we learned that Tom was wearing the set of gloves with the nail in one of them. Mercifully, my nose bleed stopped in a minute or so. Still, Mike's Mom sent me home with tissues stuffed up my nose.

Another of my memories of Tom and our days in the third grade flowed out from the rivers of time and came into focus, clear and sharp like a snapshot in an album.  It was an image of a group of us eating lunch in the school cafeteria.  While we could have had hot lunches, my memory of this particular day was that we were eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which we brought in our lunch boxes.  In the 1950s, lunch boxes were rectangular, made of mental and had television characters and movies heroes colorfully painted on them.  In this memory image, seated, in the middle of the group, are Tom and a classmate named Danny Arnold.  I remember we were a little in awe of these two, perhaps because they seemed to be a little more confident and self assured than the rest of us.

This self-confidence is the trait that Tom, often displayed, not only in grade school, but through our high school days.  Jim Kurz

Linda Mitchell (Birk)

The eulogy at Tom's funeral was offered by daughter, Jill Gerlach. A few of you requested that we post it on our web site. Below is the full text ...   

I’d like to begin by thanking everyone for joining us today to support our family during the loss of our beloved Tom. As we’ve all have heard through friends and family who shared stories, memories, etc., Tom was quite a husband, friend, man, and father. He was a man who lived every day of life to the fullest and he always taught me to do the same.

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of his lifelong friends and hearing the fun, good and some of the “not so well-behaved” things they did growing up. Tom always told mom he and his classmates were really good kids but we’ve learned otherwise from some of the stories (notice I said “some of the stories,” because the guys said they had to keep some of them to themselves – you know the, “bro code.” 

Speaking of friends, when Tom became sick, both mom and Tom were overwhelmed with the outpouring of love, support and concern they received. Friends, neighbors (some of whom they hadn’t even met yet in their new neighborhood) immediately began offering help in any way they needed; from taking him to daily radiation treatments, to cooking meals for our family and staying with Mom for weeks on end to help care for him at home which is where he wanted to be. Tom was often moved to tears over to the tremendous amount of love and support everyone showed him and our family.   When he would cry, he would always say “these damn steroids make me so emotional.”  However, we all knew better.  The truth is, Tom was a very loving, caring, giving man and when he received the same treatment from others, he was so humbled. Our closest friends said “they were going to love us through this” and they certainly did!

I consider myself to be a very lucky girl because I had the privilege and honor of having two fathers who have loved me, guided me and molded me into the woman I am today. The most special part of my two dads is that they have always loved and respected each other and have allowed me to love them both equally with all of my heart. In fact, my father, Danny was one of Tom’s caregivers.

Tom was one of the funniest men I ever knew. He made my family laugh daily. Whether it was a “Jonny” joke, a “Mr. Obvious Man” comment or something else off the wall he would say, it always brought me to near tears of laughter. I would always get the biggest kick out of watching Tom laugh because he would get so tickled and would crack himself up and you had no choice but to join in.

Tom was also one of the smartest men I ever knew. Every morning, he would enjoy his quiet time of sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and working the daily crossword puzzle. When I would join him in the kitchen, he would ask me if I knew a four letter word for something I had never heard of…..excuse me, did he know who he was talking too? Never once did I give him the correct answer, which always left me feeling like quite a genius.

I will never forget the news of Tom having a brain tumor. In fact, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that diagnosis, much less how quickly it progressed and took him from my family’s loving arms far too soon.  The most amazing thing about Tom through his diagnosis was the fact that he maintained a positive outlook and forward thinking plan for himself. He was 200% ready to fight this brain tumor with everything he had in him. Just last Wednesday, we were at UK hospital and he asked me to lean over so he could ask me a question. As I leaned in, he said, “that nurse told me I was her favorite patient. Do you think that’s true or does she tell everyone that?” I explained to him that she couldn’t possibly say that to everyone because I had witnessed some patients be pretty rude towards their caregivers over the last few months. Tom, however, ALWAYS, in every situation, no matter how bad he was feeling that day was so very polite to each to every nurse, doctor, housekeeper, guest and anyone else that came in his room to do for him. He would always ask the staff how their day was going, he’d offer them candy and made sure to say “thank you” as they’d leave the room. I explained to Tom why everyone who meets him loves him and that I had no doubt that the nurse who said he was her favorite truly meant it. Through teary eyes, he grinned from ear to ear and gave me a hug I’ll cherish forever.

In the time that Tom has been a part of our lives, our family has had such purpose. Tom became the rock and foundation that kept us together through good times and bad. We laughed every time we were around each other and my mother and Tom’s relationship showed me what true love is. I can still picture Tom walking through the door, kissing my mother and saying, “hey honey, how’s your day going?” My mother was blessed with a loving husband who woke up every morning to make her day special beginning with a warm cup of coffee in bed at 9 a.m. I always knew if I called the house before 9 a.m. I’d be speaking to Tom so I called quite often.

Recently, my mother shared a card Tom wrote her that she holds dear to her heart.Sometimes I don’t do or say the thoughtful things I could.  Sometimes I take the wonderful things you do for granted. Sometimes I don’t show you how important our marriage is to me. But I hope that somehow you always know I am very grateful for your precious love and you.

Although my mother says she cherishes this card, she struggles with its meaning because Tom showed his love for her every day, always thanked her (and others) for every small thing she did from laundry, to buying his clothes, grocery shopping (tell funny senior day story…)

Although our family knew Tom’s diagnosis was quite grim, we continued to hold on to dreams and make plans as a family. One example that comes to mind is how great a trip to Hawaii would be as soon as he “danced” his way out of Cardinal Hill. Even though we knew it might not happen, we still day dreamed about what we’d do when we arrived, how long we’d be there basking in the sun on the beach, enjoying the finest of restaurants on the water, etc. Unfortunately, that time will never come now. They same time prepares you for bad things. I say that’s a lie. Three short months was nowhere near long enough to prepare any of us for life without Tom. I will live the rest of my life missing him but will forever be grateful that he is no longer suffering here on earth.

Tom, I hope you’re playing on the greenest, most beautiful golf course, enjoying a bourbon and coke, sitting on a pier playing a guitar entertaining the angels’ choir with your beautiful voice and waiting for the rest of us to all be together again. Until then, you will forever hold a piece of my heart that every little girl feels for her daddy. All of us here on earth can only imagine how truly wonderful heaven is and hope you are now “dancing in the sky.”

Bob Miles

That was such a beautiful obituary. I knew Tom also a fun loving and he had such a great voice. When the football team was playing I knew Tom was going to get as many yards as he could, because he was dedicated to what he did all the time. I have not been in touch with Tom since we graduated, but I do have those   memories of him. Seeing him in the hallway always with a smile on his face. He WAS a very fun loving guy, that seem to attract everyone, and put a smile on their face. He will be missed and I am looking forward to when we will be reunited.