WhenI first had the opportunity to meet Brother Tom it was a meeting designed to convince him to join the KOC. The more I discussed it with him, the more I was convinced he should run for office in our Council. 
As it turned out, Brother Tom not only joined us but ran for office in our Council to be the next Deputy Grand Knight for our Council. 
Worthy Deputy Grand Knight Tom was extremely helpful to our Council and helped willingly in all our charity work. 
We often laughed about the above when I kept reminding him that his Irish name will always be a big hit with Father Higgins.
He was such a wonderful Man and now is with all his Brothers in Heaven.

Our thoughts & deepest sympathies go out to the Gillespie family.  What a wonderful family Tom & Karen have built together. Hold your memories close to your heart during this time.

I worked with Tom many times over the years at Coca-Cola while in Category Management. The closest we worked together was as soft drink category captains with Home Depot when they explored and tested a convenience store concept in the store parking lots in Nashville and Georgia. Tom and I met with them many times to help them determine how they would optimize soft drinks in their stores. Tom shared with them many examples of how soft drinks were successfully used in the convenience store segment to drive traffic, revenue and profit. We were there together for all of the store set ups and grand openings. Although the concept was eventually shelved, it wasn’t due to the lack of effort and professionalism on our parts, especially Tom’s. They always seemed to appreciate his candid fact based opinions on what it would take to be successful. I enjoyed those times getting to know Tom on a personal level, working long hours and traveling together for this project.