Loss of a good Studebaker friend

[BobPalma]

The heaviest of hearts announce this news:

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?316404-Godspeed-Tom-Shaw-you-will-be-missed&p=2634134&posted=1#post2634134

RIP, Tom...and thanks for your many contributions to the Studebaker world. You remain a dear friend. BP

[R3 challenger]

Tom was one of the most gentle, kind persons you would want to know. I never heard him say a bad word about anyone. It was a privilege to know him. This is a huge loss to his friends and all those interested in high performance cars.

George

[Silverplate]

Prayers sent. Mike

[BobPalma]

Here is Tom's obituary.

I posted condolences and a photo of him, including thanks from Studebakerdom, in the Legacy book Tuesday evening, November 29.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theledger/obituary.aspx?n=thomas-g-shaw&pid=182826288

(Yes, I wish they had capitalized God in his obit...as a writer/editor and Godly man, Tom would have insisted on it!)

Gee, I miss that guy. You don't make too many new, real friends late in life, but Tom was a good one. Some people do leave a bigger hole than others....in my friend Tom's case, both literally and figuratively! BP

[BobPalma]

You'll notice contradictory emoticons in the opening to this post. All of them are appropriate, I am sorry to say, because this is a bittersweet post.

That's because Donny Brass (well, I think it was Donny!) of Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race fame e-mailed and asked if they could heavily crop and use a photo of Tom Shaw I took at The 2016 Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race. It would appear in a tribute to Tom the event was planning for their website home page. I said of course, that I'd be honored. Here is that tribute:

http://www.psmcdr.com/21.html

The news, of course, is that the tribute needed to be written upon Tom's demise.

The news is that if you look closely at the right side of the photo, you will see, from the rear, the interior of George Krem's Plain Brown Wrapper 1964 R3 Challenger 2-door. The car was on the trailer, which explains its height in relation to Tom. The entire photo (i.e., before the necessarily-heavy crop) showing the rear of the car on the trailer, with Tom and I standing behind it, appears in Post #10 to this thread on the Buick V8 Forum:

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?316404-Godspeed-Tom-Shaw-you-will-be-missed

So as you see, both emoticons are appropriate for those of us in Studebaker-land, but not in equal measure. We will forever miss Tom Shaw, one of the best, and quite possibly the best, "non-Studebaker' friend our Studebaker hobby ever had. BP

[hausdok]

I didn't know Mr. Shaw, so it's difficult for me to feel the impact his passing has had on Mr. Palma and others. However, I think that, if there is an afterlife that enables one to look back upon this earth and those we knew and loved, he is probably there right now, looking back at what those who loved and knew him have written, and is feeling very loved and gratified that he was able to make such an impact on this planet, and to have been able to make positive differences in peoples' lives, and he is definitely at peace.

[BobPalma]

I didn't know Mr. Shaw, so it's difficult for me to feel the impact his passing has had on Mr. Palma and others. However, I think that, if there is an afterlife that enables one to look back upon this earth and those we knew and loved, he is probably there right now feeling very loved and gratified that he was able to make such an impact on this planet, and to have been able to make positive differences in peoples' lives, and he is definitely at peace.

That's exactly right, Mike; thank you for that post. You have perfectly captured the essence of Tom Shaw. Yes, he is definitely at peace: He was a fellow Christian, so I know our time apart, though painful now, is miniscule in the big scheme of things.

In my roughly 56 years of Studebakerdom, if I pick age 14 as a random starting point, I have never met a "non-Studebaker" person as enthusiastic about our cars as was Tom Shaw. Every word he wrote about Studebaker high-performance cars was accurate and positive...and he penned a lot of them in many articles in many publications since we met him and introduced him to Studebaker's R-series engines at The 1998 Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race.

We took George's R3 Challenger up there for the first time that year. After it won all ten random practice races in which it was entered, it really had Tom's attention as a muscle car writer...and he never let up. To say he was fascinated by The Plain Brown Wrapper (and ultimately by all R-series Studebakers) would be an understatement.

I honestly choke up at the thought of not seeing Tom at The 2017 Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race next September. As Dan Jensen accurately said in that tribute, it really never will be the same. BP

[LovelandJoe]

Tom past at a too young of an age. Good man who will be missed