I first met Tone through a former employee and friend, who was Tone's roommate at the time. Shortly thereafter Tone came to work for me, and as everyone who met him knows, he made an immediate impression.
Tone had a lot of things in common with me. Both of us were single dads of daughters that were the same age, we were both the same age, we both liked Macs, and both of us were into cars. He was on his second VX at the time, the first one being totaled right after he bought it. He'd already installed several gadgets and mods, including a sunroof, in the second.
Tone knew how to live life, and he loved adventure. I went on a few of those with him, such as when we went to the Houston Grand Prix. I was there when Tone took his VX down to Corpus to run in a Porsche club autocross. Everyone else had sports cars, but there was Tone trying to get every bit of speed out of his black VX...with the 3.5L indicator on the side of car altered to read "5L."
Tone added NOS and a supercharger to his VX, and became a forum moderator (not sure if it was this one) at one point. This became an issue when he was working for me, when it came to light he spent a great deal of effort getting other people to do his work, so he could spend time on the forums.
I have never met anyone more enthusiastic than Tone, and I learned things from him that I never otherwise would have, had I not met him.
The last time I saw Tone, I was entering the freeway driving an FJ Cruiser and he blew past me in his Mercedes SUV. This was a few months ago. He didn't know it was me, but I'm sure he was eyeing the FJ when he made his move. This was vintage Tone.
I just returned from the service today, there were many VX's in attendance, including some that drove thousands of miles to be there. Tone had a lot of friends, and was always willing to lend a hand or do whatever he could to help out a fellow enthusiast. He will be missed.
To Lisa and the family, my condolences.
RIP TM.
-Robert
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