Tom was my roommate junior and senior years at Carleton. He and I went to the same high school near Chicago, and in fact Tom was the reason I came to Carleton. To be honest, his academic career was always troubled. He dropped out his sophomore year, and when he returned, managed to pick a fight with his major study’s (German) department chair. He went through a long slog through 1972 to obtain C-O status and do alternative work, and there were other challenges. I lost touch with Tom after graduation and learned a couple of years ago that he had died in Chicago in November 2012. But I never knew the circumstances of his life and death after Carleton. A friend from Chicago just sent me Tom’s funeral bulletin, and it surprised me. Tom got an MA in German Literature from Middlebury. But in the mid-70s, Tom decided to become an architect and put himself through IIT’s 5-year (!) program, paying for it by driving taxi, working as a security guard, and doing church janitorial work. I understand that there’s a 14-story building in Chicago that’s Tom’s handiwork. According to the bulletin, Tom was an avid cyclist and basketball player. Tom married Sandra Goldin in September 1989, and the couple had two sons. Sandra says that Tom was a creative and engaged father. Tom died after a six-year battle with scleroderma, a disease of the autoimmune system. My friend in Chicago says that he had seen Tom several times before he died, and that Tom had lost weight and then had to walk with a cane. I read about this Tom, who lived his life with principle and direction, accomplished wonderful things in both his personal and professional life, and tried to reconcile it with the struggling guy I knew in college. I can imagine some of it. Yet I feel sad that I never knew the real and best Tom, in large measure due to a lack of belief and imagination on my part. May light eternal shine on you, Tom Steinbrecher!
Richard Langer ’68
Thomas Steinbrecher ’68
5 December 2013
Comments
Tom was my roommate junior and senior years at Carleton. He and I went to the same high school near Chicago, and in fact Tom was the reason I came to Carleton. To be honest, his academic career was always troubled. He dropped out his sophomore year, and when he returned managed to pick a fight with his major study's (German) department chair. He went through a long slog through 1972 to obtain C-O status and do alternative work, and there were other challenges. I lost touch with Tom after graduation and learned a couple of years ago that he had died in Chicago in November 2012. But I never knew the circumstances of his life and death after Carleton. A friend from Chicago just sent me Tom's funeral bulletin, and it surprised me. Tom got an MA in German Literature from Middlebury. But in the mid-70s, Tom decided to become an architect and put himself through IIT's 5-year (!) program, paying for it by driving taxi, working as a security guard, and doing church janitorial work. I understand that there's a 14-story building in Chicago that's Tom's handiwork. According to the bulletin, Tom was an avid cyclist and basketball player. Tom married Sandra Goldin in September 1989, and the couple had two sons. Sandra says that Tom was a creative and engaged father. Tom died after a six-year battle with scleroderma, a disease of the autoimmune system. My friend in Chicago says that he had seen Tom several times before he died, and that Tom had lost weight and then had to walk with a cane. I read about this Tom, who lived his life with principle and direction, accomplished wonderful things in both his personal and professional life, and tried to reconcile it with the struggling guy I knew in college. I can imagine some of it. Yet I feel sad that I never knew the real and best Tom, in large measure due to a lack of belief and imagination on my part. May light eternal shine on you, Tom Steinbrecher!