Thomas Edward Pfalzer was born on August 7, 1946 in Staten Island, NY and passed away in his favorite reading chair on October 28, 2021 in Huntsville, AL.

Tom's beginning and end are the only instances where this unique man maintained custom.  The rest of his 75 years are filled with stories of one that always cut across the grain and never failed to surprise.  Even after 50 years of marriage, Tom's wife Margie could never predict what he would be up to next.

A borough kid until age 10, Tom and his siblings, Kathy and Charlie, crossed the country in a Ford station wagon in the spring of 1957 with their parents where they made Antioch, CA their new home.  A year later, Tom's favorite baseball team joined him when the Giants made the same trek west to San Francisco.  A whip smart student with a rebellious streak, as a teen Tom grew bored of the classroom and of Catholic school rules.  Tom put little effort into the classroom, instead working long hours at the local grocery market, on a paper route and even a saw mill.  Tom saved his hard earned dollars and at the age of 16 bought a 1955 Chevrolet Bel-Air for $400.  While his early 1960's classmates wore jeans and white t-shirts, Tom strolled into class in slacks and Florsheim shoes.

During his sophomore year at Antioch High School Tom calculated that if he got an "A" on the final it would lift his grade for the semester from an "F" to a "D."  He crammed months of reading into a week and surprised Mrs. Bennett with the highest grade in the class.  Unamused by the performance, Mrs. Bennett told Tom that she was still going to flunk him.  Tom correctly responded that she couldn't do that since she'd failed to send him a mid-year progress report.  Tom got the "D" and, if anyone at Antioch HS had been paying attention, a future badass lawyer was standing right in front of them.

Tom still had a few more years though to show everyone at Antioch HS just how much he could underachieve academically.   By his senior year with Tom flunking woodworking, auto shop, and medal shop, his counselor encouraged him to drop out and get a full-time job.  Tom was already working a full-time job and, for once, was willing to oblige and listen to authority.  Tom dropped out of high school to work.  Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia the Vietnam war was raging and Tom's draft number was called.  Tom was forced to trade in a Safeway apron for an M-16 and joined the Big Red One's Artillery division to fight in Vietnam from 1967-68.  The war was awful but Tom proved to be a resilient soul.

Rather than breaking, Tom came back home and found his voice.  He vowed to speak truth to power and it would become his defining characteristic.  With Tom, you would always know where he stood.  There was no obfuscation, he was always blunt and direct about everything.  Vowing to never again put his fate in the hands of others, Tom decided he'd stick it to the man by working from within the system.  To do that, the high school dropout went to college.

A day after returning home from the Army, Tom walked into an Economics class at Diablo Valley College and sat down next to Margaret Cupp.  A week later she agreed to go on a date with him.  Tom didn't know it at the time but he'd just found his life partner of 50+ years and a woman he would later describe through tears "as the best woman on this planet with a heart of gold."  Tom and Grandpa Cupp had fierce debates about the war and the social turmoil of the late 1960's.  More than once Grandpa kicked him out of their house, but Tom somehow won over Margie's parents, 7 sisters and brother.  After graduating from college Tom and Margie married at St. Mary's College chapel and 9 ½ months later welcomed their first son Seth in Spokane, WA where Tom had enrolled at Gonzaga Law School.  While in law school Tom continued to work full-time at Safeway and Margie worked nights as a waitress.  Tom and Margie would look back in awe and recall that in those early days, they couldn't afford a phone line or baby crib.

After graduating and passing the CA Bar exam, Tom was hired by O'Connor, Cohn, Dillon & Barr and the family of three returned to the Bay Area.  The family grew larger when a daughter Sarah was born in San Francisco in 1978.  In 1982, Tom left his close friend and legal mentor Duncan Barr, and moved to the McNamara Law Firm in Walnut Creek.  Two years later, a second son Sean was born.  With the 3 S's (Seth, Sarah, Sean) in place, Tom and Margie bought their first home in Moraga and set about building on their American dream.

For Tom, this meant he was going to give his children all the best the world had to offer.  That started with a welcoming home and Tom and Margie's motto was always "the more the merrier."  Their home on Devin Drive was the epicenter for all of their kids' friends and the porch was a revolving door with friends coming and going, invited or not.  Seth, Sarah and Sean's friends knew the freezer was always stocked with ice cream, but there was a tradeoff to hanging out there.  Tom showed his love to everyone by giving them a hard time and he expected that if you walked through that door you were bringing some thick skin and a sense of humor.  A high school football teammate of Sean's that had dropped one of his passes on Friday night would be greeted by Tom in the kitchen with "hey butterfingers, watch out you don't drop that ice cream bowl all over the floor."  A smile would go across his face and he loved the kids that came right back at him with their own zinger.  Tom dished it, but he could also take it.

Meanwhile at the McNamara law firm, Tom found dedicated associates in Tom Beatty, Mike Ney and Bob Slattery.  Each was a great lawyer willing to work doggedly long hours in order to succeed for each other and their families.  Over a 20+ year career Tom would be recognized as one of the best medical malpractice defense attorneys in the industry and his proudest professional moment was when the firm had grown to 60 attorneys and it's letterhead read: McNamara, Dodge, Beatty, Ney, Slattery & Pfalzer.

For Tom, the stress of being a litigator had put a massive strain on his health.  Just shy of his 54 th birthday, Tom underwent emergency heart surgery and survived a quintuple bypass.  The surgery was a remarkable success and gave Tom the gift of life, which he recognized and appreciated more than anyone.  Over the next 21 years Tom would go on to witness all three of his children's graduations from college and graduate school, all three of their marriages and the arrival of 7 incredible grandchildren.  Nothing meant more to Tom than family and his happiest moments were when the entire family would gather for the holidays.  Tom would spend months planning itineraries and nothing would get in the way of what he'd proposed.  A few years ago Tom bought a hot tub and had it ready for a family Christmas.  He didn't care that on the night everyone assembled there was a cold and pouring rain.  Tom opened up the tub, tossed boxers to those who didn't have a suit and persuaded 11 of his kids and grandkids to join him in a 6 man hot tub for the night.  Tom's grandkids still laugh at the childlike joy he brought to their world.

Shortly after putting the last of his three kids through college and in the midst of the 2008 Great Recession, Tom retired.  Though the times were uncertain, Tom never looked back.  The adventures are too numerous to count but some of his highlights include seeing all 50 states, visiting Sean and Anna in Prague, traveling to Japan with Seth and Makiko, dozens of trips to see Sarah and John in NY and AL, fly fishing in Argentina with Ed Cole and in Oregon with Mark Hiefield, researching his genealogy in Ireland, renovating a lake house with Kenny Arnold, tracing the origins of the Beatles in Liverpool, NY dinners with his cousin Colin McBride, and leading a 4 th of July parade at the Russian River with Claire McGuire and Jim Herzikoff.  When Tom learned Seth's family would be in Barcelona for Thanksgiving in 2019, Tom called 14 year old Avery and said "you want to go on a trip with your Grandpa?"  Two days later the pair flew to Europe and visited Madrid, Barcelona, and Paris.  That was classic Tom.

In 2016, Tom and Margie moved to Huntsville, AL to be closer to Sarah and Sean's families. Always blunt and honest about the move from the Bay Area, he told Seth "Sarah Pie will do a better job taking care of us."  Few believed Tom could survive living in the South, but he loved it.  He made dozens of friends and loved touring visitors to Huntsville's Space & Rocket Center, the famed Muscle Shoals studios, the legendary Birmingham Barons baseball stadium and, the hallowed National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery.  Tom literally read hundreds of books during those years and filled an entire library wall with his favorite authors.  Every morning he read multiple newspapers, scouted out local real estate deals, cheered at his grandkids' events, and dreamed up never ending home improvement projects.  Tom and son-in-law John were inseparable and John proved to be his most capable son.  John can do anything and he filled the gap in skills Tom had from all those missed high school shop classes.  Just last month, the two had taken delivery of a ski boat and Tom couldn't wait to have all his grandkids out on the water with him this summer.

Tom never texted always reaching out by phone to talk to friends and family, and always leaving a voicemail.  Sometimes he'd relay a long 2 minutes story, other times he'd simply say "Hey, it's dad.  Where you at?  Call me back!"  Even on his last day of life, Tom followed his morning ritual of reading the newspaper, sending emails to his closest friends and making calls to Sarah, John, Charlie and Kathy.

In the end, Tom's story is the American story.  A young and imperfect man with so much potential who, after being cast aside and given up on by most, had the chance to reinvent himself and who seized that opportunity to achieve greatness.  Tom was honest and tough, but he used his own life story as a lesson to never give up on anyone.  As a patriot, he took his obligation as a citizen seriously and it's unfortunate that the White House, US Senate and Congressional mailrooms will be a little less busy with his passing.  A voice like Tom's mattered and made a difference.  The legacy he passes to us is that we all work to ensure there is justice and equity for society's underdogs so that the next generation of Tom Pfalzer's have a chance to succeed and achieve their dreams too.

We love you Tom. Thank you for loving with all your heart…beyond its final beat.

A joyous Celebration of Life will take place in the Bay Area in Spring 2022 with Margie, Seth (Makiko, Maya and Mika), Sarah (John, Avery and Miles), and Sean (Anna, Hazel, Arlo and Everett)

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center in Tom's name. SPLCenter.org