Whenever I was with Tom and Donna, his smile warmed my heart.  Love , Debbie

Tom was a brilliant, kind, and loving man. I am so grateful for his friendship. He worked out with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He worked hard to stay strong. He always asked about the family and showed us so much kindness. He was like another dad to me. I miss him every day. I miss cutting up about football. Longhorns and Aggies can be friends! He always had good insight and helped me when I had a problem. He is my favorite Aggie and he will forever be in my heart!❤️

Donna, unfortunately we never met but I share your pain. The loss of a spouse leaves an enormous emptiness at your side. I found the following text helpful when I lost my wife (translated from French): The pain of mourning is the price one pays for having loved and having been loved.
My friendship with Tom began when we were about 12 years old when his family moved to Pleasant Grove, Texas from Lake Charles. Our life paths diverged after high school when we choose different universities but then converged when I joined Motorola Phoenix about 6 months after Tom. A few years later they diverged again when Tom took a position at Mostek in Carrollton and I moved to Geneva, Switzerland (where I still live) to help establish Motorola’s first IC design operation outside of the USA.
During the next 30 Motorola years whenever I was in the Austin area I made it a point to stop by Tom’s office. Although we seldom had the opportunity to physically meet, our friendship remained intact.

My condolences to the family and friends.  While I haven't seen Tom in many, many years I very fondly remember working with him in the '80s when I was a customer at HP.  He was always a pleasure to work with, entertaining, educational and charming in his own special way.  The evenings we spent at The County Line eating ridiculous piles of ribs is forever etched in my memory.  It is nice to see from the photos that the tradition continued!

Tom was a brilliant & amazing man, one of my wonderful mentors at Motorola. There are plenty of great stories & fond memories for all of us revolving around him & "us kids".  My wife & I will miss his annual holiday calls to catch up & share what was happening with our families after receiving our holiday cards. I truly valued his friendship. Rest in peace Tom, a sweet & kind soul.

I was honored to work in Tom’s organization at Motorola in the 90’s.  I want to echo all the comments about Tom’s leadership, technical genius, mentorship, friendship and kindness.

Tom and I had a bet last fall on who would do better against Alabama – UT or A&M.  In typical Tom fashion, he paid off big with a “Cadillac Platter” from the County Line (see attached picture).  We had enough food for 10 people but had more fun than food.   We also took the opportunity, as we always did, to have an in depth discussion regarding our mutual love of Golden Retrievers (starting with Butch!).   

Special thanks to Donna for taking such good care of Tom and condolences to his entire family.

Based on all he taught us, Tom will be missed but not forgotten.  

From a devoted Longhorn, Gig ‘em Tom.

Tom was there when I started working at Motorola, and was there when I finished.  As mentioned by many, he touched and shaped people's careers, was a powerful advocate, and was so generous with his time and advice.  His leadership and foresight in microprocessors and then network processors, along with his strong business acumen, set an example for many of us. 

These last 10 years I will always remember our times catching up - sometimes weekly.  Tom would inquire about our family, my mother, our lives, and then we would share stories about the happenings of the world. The conversations would meander all over the place, and Tom's genuine friendship was very evident. I will miss him and our talks deeply. 

Every single word in Tom's obituary resonates, and describes Tom and his journey on this earth.  I am honored and humbled to call him, my friend, my advocate, my mentor, and one of his Motorola “kids” :-)

To Donna, Shannon, Thomas, and the grandchildren - our thoughts are with you as you grieve Tom's passing, but also celebrate his life. 

With love,
Chris

From the bottom of my heart, I am saddened for the Gunter family by Tom’s loss.  We had been trading messages not long ago about getting together to chat about AI and the enormous changes in computing power. I had put together a spreadsheet for Tom showing the transistor counts and allocations for Apple silicon since the M1 since I knew that we’d have some things to talk about.

Tom’s curiosity and enthusiasm for knowledge never sagged.  I am grateful for Tom’s mentorship and advocacy in my years with Motorola and for the amazing on-the-job and career growth training there.  Mostly I am grateful for the friendship that developed and remained over so many years.  It is a testament to Tom that so many held him in esteem and enjoyed sitting around a breakfast table with him.

In my 17 years working for Tom in various roles, I recall that he could be a rascal about returning phone calls and that it sometimes seemed impossible to get a decision from him.  As my responsibilities grew in running technology businesses myself, I came to greatly appreciate the lessons that I derived from this:  1) trying to return every call is a fool’s errand that just creates more calls.  Deal with the important stuff, the rest can figure itself out.  And 2) no answer is an answer.   Sometimes the best way to deal with ambiguity is to simply let time unfold.   I am thankful to Tom for these lessons in the subtleties of leadership.

I will end with thanks to his family for supporting Tom, even when he worked too long and hard.  He was a treasure to so many.

-Jim Reinhart

I am going to miss my pig skin pal. Tom and I would look forward to the college football season and his beloved Aggies. Tom even converted Donna to a college football expert fan. Once the season was over I converted Tom and Donna to  women's college basketball fans. They enjoyed watching Caitlin Clark put on a show. Tom could not believe how physical and fast the women players were.  I will certainly miss my good friend, but will never forget his kindness and sense of humor. I will be listening very carefully during the Aggie games for a gig'em coming from the heavens.
Sincerely,
Ed

This photo of Tom and all his "kids" is from the Motorola Hi-End reunion in September, 2016.  Tom was a fantastic mentor to so many people.  We all owe him a lot.

To Tom and Donna’s family, I thank you for sharing Tom with us.

Tom understood well what most of us learn eventually. If our children are doing well, then life is good.  And when you “worked” for Tom, you became family.  

And Tom was the engineer of the silicon train. He collected the things others didn’t -- people, customers, skills and challenges – often as something came into the group that others didn’t want or understand, Murray gave it to Tom.

As the “engineer”, Tom assembled the train that built ongoing leadership in microprocessors, networking and new SoC design methodologies. And we worked to build a community around performance that helped us grow an amazingly successful business that made things smarter and connected.

Our family made a difference.  Tom inspired us all. Many grew into leadership. Several have trained even more leaders.

Remember how you’ll be remembered, I’ve been told.  Tom is the father of the 68000 and true to Bob Galvin’s Motorola culture.  Thank you for the opportunity to learn, grow and “be effective.”

 We can’t forget someone who gave us so much to remember and so many shared experiences. Those who touch our lives, stay in our hearts forever.

To Donna and Tom’s children and other loved ones… I had the benefit and pleasure of working at Motorola and subsequent “derivative” semiconductor successors for nearly twenty years with Tom. He and I were “peers” with responsibility for different products, and retained a strong personal friendship into and through our retirement years. Tom’s allegiance to and love for Texas A&M was a hallmark in addition to his brilliance in engineering as well as financial management. I will miss his keen perspective on many matters as well as his unique sense of humor and general integrity. 
Jim George

Fatty and I took roadtrip to Texas to visit family. Fatty was able to cherish moments with Tom. Fatty loved him and was able to get some BBQ from him.

Tom treated us to his favorite mexican food restaurant.

Tom, Donna and Fatty making memories while we were on vacation. Fatty was very lucky to meet an amazing person like Tom. Tom loved him like he was his own dog. Fatty stayed by him most the time we were there. My son and I will miss Tom

OBITUARY

Thomas Glen Gunter

24 March, 1947 – 11 October, 2024

Cook-Walden/Forest Oaks Funeral Home and Memorial Park

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