Thomas P. Seabase, 40

Thomas P. Seabase, 40, died Sept. 11, 2007, in Kirkland, Wash., with his wife, Annette, at his side.

Tom was a remarkable man. He was diagnosed at an early age with kidney disease and survived two kidney transplants and numerous other illnesses. In spite of his many medical obstacles, Tom had a positive attitude and a joy for life. Tom touched many people's lives with his vibrant personality and outgoing presence. He will be missed by his many friends and relatives.

Tom was born Dec. 2, 1966, in Mount Clemens, Mich., to Thomas and Janet Seabase. Tom moved to Montana at the age of 6. He attended schools in Sterling Heights, Mich., Pablo and Ronan before graduating from Polson High School in 1985. Tom continued his education at the University of Montana, in the computer science field, and worked in the programming, development, quality assurance, and management areas of computer science as an adult.

Tom was an entrepreneur from an early age, fixing bicycles to fund a church-related outreach mission trip to Japan in 1982, less than one year after his first kidney transplant.

Tom started his computer career working for the Lake County Sheriff's Office, performing computer data programming related to undercover surveillance work. He later started his own computer sales business in Polson, called Ramdek. After a few years, Tom moved his computer business to Kalispell and changed the name to Point Computers and Electronics, a computer retail store. The last entrepreneurial venture for Tom was Northwest Media, a computer kiosk business. Tom created the FIDS program that local airports used for their real-time air-traffic control. These kiosks were installed in airports in Montana and Utah.

From 2001 to 2005, Tom managed the programming department of a Kalispell data company before moving on to a quality assurance manager position at Intelius, a major national data provider in Seattle. Tom loved Washington and enjoyed his position and his co-workers at Intelius. Friends there had a memorial service for him earlier this month.

Tom also had a great love for music. Tom was a self-taught guitar player and played and sang in a high-school band with friends before recording his own music during his adult life. Tom wrote and played numerous songs for his wife and loved to "jam" with other musicians. His guitar was never far away.

Tom married the love of his life, Annette, in August 1997. Tom and Annette were best friends and soul mates. They did everything and went everywhere together. You rarely saw one without the other.

Tom was preceded in death by his paternal grandparents, Paul L. Seabase and Irene G. Seabase; his maternal grandmother, Anne Pugliese; and an older sister, Rebecca Anne Seabase.

Tom is survived by his wife, Annette; his stepson, Seth Foster; and his stepdaughter, Kassie Foster; his maternal grandfather, Leonard Kaye, of Akron, Ohio; his parents, Tom and Janet Seabase; his siblings, Laura Haskins, Eric Seabase and Janet Edington; his stepgrandchildren, Peyton, Jackson and Alexis Foster; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A memorial service for family and close family friends will be held at 3 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Glacier Camp and Conference Center, south of Lakeside. Mass will be held for Tom at 12:10 p.m. Oct. 25 at St. Matthew's Church in Kalispell, with Father Vic Langhans officiating.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials be made to the Tom Seabase Memorial Fund, 101 Park Ave., in Kalispell. Proceeds will be donated to kidney research.