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Thomas “Tom” Walter Leis, generous family-man, avid collector, professional shopper, and accomplished bull-shitter, died suddenly Monday, July 3, 2023, at the age of 76. Tom was born in Brookville, PA, son of the late Walter and Evelyn Leis. After high school, he went to Erie, PA, where he met the love of his life and best friend, Carol, who he somehow convinced to marry him before they could even drink at their own wedding. After completing his associate degree at Erie Business College, Tom started his 39-year career with IBM that sent him all over the world: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut (x2), Maryland, Japan, and finally South Carolina. Tom was immensely proud of his time at IBM and considered himself a true IBMer. After his retirement, he continued “working” and turned his focus to community and civic activities. He was a current board member of the Litchfield Beautification Foundation and previously held the same position with the Litchfield by the Sea and the River Club Community Organizations. The only thing that Tom cared about more than his work was his family. Tom was an unbelievably generous husband, father, and grandfather who did everything he could to make his family happy. He showed this on a daily basis by ensuring he was home every night for family dinner, promptly at 7pm. His favorite time of the year was Christmas, when he got to shower his family with gifts that he had been purchasing over the past 364 days. It was truly something he spent a full year preparing for and he was more excited to give the gifts than his family was to receive them. Tom had a dry sense of humor, was incredibly sarcastic, and loved to tell stories. And, you could be sure 50% of every story was true. You just never knew which 50%. Along with those stories came teasing and joking around, his family being the main recipient of his teasing, but no one was safe, as he would talk with everyone and never really met a stranger. Tom is probably best known to be stubborn, but only because he wanted to ensure the right thing was done in every situation. Tom lived by the motto “anything worth doing is worth doing right” and he applied that to all situations. Tom’s strongest and most unknown trait was his sentimentality, he was a repository of family artifacts and history and tied together many generations of Leises. Tom’s untimely departure creates a huge hole in his family and community. He will be missed more than words can say. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Carol, his son Chris and his wife Shawn of Washington, DC; his son, Matt and his wife Kelly, along with his granddaughters, Evelyn & Kinley of Cumming, GA; and his sister, Cheryl and her husband Roger of Grapevine, TX. A Celebration of Tom’s life will be held on July 29th, 2023 at the Litchfield by the Sea Beach house. The celebration will start at 3pm and all are welcome. In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be given to the American Diabetes Association at https://diabetes.org/. More importantly, the family would like to hear your stories about Tom. Please visit http://twleis.com to share your stories, pictures, and memories of the great man we all knew. Goldfinch Funeral Home, Beach Chapel is in charge of the arrangements.

Tributes

Thomas "Tom" Walter Leis

July 3, 2023