Tom was born October 24, 1942 to Henry and Ruth Billeter in Toledo, OH. After graduating from Rogers High School in 1960, Tom enlisted and graduated from special vehicle tech school at Chanute Air Force Base (AFB) in Illinois in 1962 with the rank Airman First Class.
In 1965, Tom married the love of his life Carole. Tom built a career in the Air Force as a special vehicle mechanic, cross-training into helicopters including the UH-1H (Huey), and serving at a number of distinguished posts throughout the United States and overseas in combat. While stationed in Hawaii he and Carole became proud parents to son Jason in 1970. They welcomed son, Kyle, in California in 1974 before the young family moved to Xenia, OH where Tom served at Wright-Patterson AFB. A proud member of the Orientation Group, USAF, Tom was part of a team that took apart and rebuilt F-15, F-4, A-10, T-37 and T-38 airplanes for public display and education.
In 1982 Tom and Carole decided to make roots in Tucson where Tom was offered a position with Learjet. Tom earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management at Park College in 1987 while simultaneously working at Air Force Plant 44. He continued his career at multiple companies before ultimately retiring from the City of Tucson in 2005.
Since retiring Tom dedicated thousands of hours a year volunteering at the Davis Monthan AFB Pharmacy. His hobbies included woodworking and tinkering in his well-equipped garage workshop, honing his skills at the gun range, reading lengthy non-fiction, cheering on his Ohio State Buckeyes, maintaining his self-designed desert landscape and “sampling” cookies made for him with love by family.
Tom’s fellow airmen describe him as having the highest level of integrity, skill and compassion with an intuition and sense of humor second to none.
He was a devoted father who was a true role model to his sons. This love extended to his grandchildren, who called him Papa. He’d drive anywhere at any time and was a fixture at each recital, birthday party and every other magical moment. He never missed an opportunity to share a joke or a riddle and his hugs were second to none.
Tom joins his soulmate Carole, mother, father and sister Carol in heaven. He is survived by his grateful and loving sons Jason and Kyle, daughter-in-law Brandye, grandson Nolan, granddaughter Marlee, and sister Ruth.
Details regarding a celebration of life to be held in late June will be available at https://tinyurl.com/TomBilleter. The family requests any donations made in Tom’s honor go to www.dm50.org.
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