While in college he had his first encounter with a computer, a mainframe timesharing system operated by Dartmouth College. It was love at first sight. He also became close friends with a classmate of his named Andy Foray, with whom he had much in common. His friendship with Andy led Thom to the other great love of his life, Andy's sister Irene.

Thom gradutated in 1977 with a commission as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy, a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Transportation with a minor in Computer Science, and a license as a Third Mate (oceans, unlimited tonnage) in the U.S. Merchant Marine. He discovered, somewhat to his dismay, that none of these skills were particularly in demand on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. He stayed in the New York/New Jersey area after graduation, marrying Irene in October following his graduation.

At first Thom worked primarily as a Third Mate, sailing "off the board" for several steamship companies. In between ships he sought work as a computer consultant, primarily to pass the time and to be able to play with computers. Eventually he discovered in retrospect that he hadn't sailed in awhile, and was doing well enough with computers that he didn't have to.

Shortly after that Thom and his brother-in-law Andy Foray went into business together, forming a software publishing company named System Enhancement Associates (SEA). They published several successful titles, including ARC (a data compression utility that is the progenitor of utilities such as ZipFolders), SEAdog (an early PC-pased email system), and the Kitten BBS system (a forerunner of modern online services). Along the way they developed many standards and technologies that were instrumental in the growth of the FidoNet BBS network, a forerunner of the current Internet.

In 1992 SEA sold marketing rights to a Japanese company, after which Thom and Andy retired. This finally allowed Thom and his wife Irene to return to his beloved homeland, the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Thom would be found primarily sitting by the Chesapeake Bay reading a book, except that in 1995 his wife started up ESVAnet, a local Internet service provider for the Eastern Shore, and drafted him to run the computers. Now he divides his time between the outdoors and the computer room. He doesn't mind, though, since he sees in the Internet the growing fulfillment of the dream he and many other computer telecommunication pioneers have had of the vast potential of the online world. He reports that he is having more fun playing with computers than he's had in two decades, and he still follows the grail of the online community:

"Dedicated to the free exchange of information."

thom@esva.net