Tom Rettig was a major guru in the dBASE, Clipper, and finally Fox community. To those of us who had the privilege of knowing him, he was a friend in the truest sense. Among Tom's accomplishments were TRO (a Frame Work and accounting application for FoxPro 2.X), and multiple other utilities that allowed development in FoxPro to be easier and faster. He participated in the IEEE xBASE "standardization" effort of the major after market product vendors during the FoxPro 2.x years.

Tom was a person whose stature in the community never interfered in his ability to meet and enjoy people. Many were the times that a new person to FoxPro would marvel at Tom's ability to make them feel important and a valuable contributor to the community knowledge.

In his earlier life, Tom played Jeff in the "Lassie" television series from 1954 to 1958. Prior to that, he had appeared as a child actor in about 20 feature films including "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T" and "The River of No Return" Tom was very modest and never attempted to "cash in" on his former fame, to the extent that a number of FoxPro community members did not realize he had once been a child movie and TV star.

Small in stature, but big in heart, Tom Rettig died Feb. 15, 1996. He was 54 years old.

http://www.minorcon.org/memorial/tommy.html

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I remembered I had this picture of Tom. I think Susan Graham took it. -- Mike Feltman

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A "Program for Life" authored by the late Tom Rettig

* remember.prg
* Sometimes we forget...
USE Yourself
SET TALK OFF
CLEAR
*
DO WHILE ALIVE
  STORE "Love" TO Heart
  STORE "Health" TO Body
  STORE "Peace" TO Mind
  STORE "Compassion" TO Others
  STORE "Esteem" TO Self
  STORE "Trust" TO Humanity
  STORE "Faith" TO God
  REPLACE Negative WITH Positive,;
          Judgment WITH Acceptance,;
          Resentment WITH Forgiveness
  REPLACE Hopelessness WITH Choice,;
          Confusion WITH Clarity,;
          Procrastination WITH Participation
  REPLACE Separation WITH Connection,;
          Lack WITH Abundance,;
          Sorrow WITH Celebration
  @ All, Times SAY your_truth
  IF its_time
    EXIT
  ENDIF
ENDDO
*
SAVE TO Always
CLEAR ALL
RETURN
*
* EOF: remember.prg

From the office wall of Mark Cayer in Ottawa, Ontario Canada.

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Thank you for whomever dug up Remember.prg. Or as it later became known: O_remember().

Other things I remember with Tom:
NJ's birthday card
jMM's elephant
Tom Hanks tanks
Prairie Tree and Lawn? (I still drink coffee out of one of those mugs.)
MOAR
SLOB

Tom tought me everything I knew about Fox -- at least everything that mattered.
-- David TAnderson

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Broadway Video's tribute to Tom Rettig. -- Bill Anderson

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See Also: Prg To Vcx

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Category People (although Tom deserves a category of his own)