Thomas Harold Rapp III

Thomas Harold Rapp, III, 72 of Austin, passed away on July 13, 2019. Tom’s short term goal after being diagnosed was to live to his 35th wedding anniversary- he made it! He will be greatly missed by family and friends. A Memorial Mass will be held at St Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, 4800 Convict Hill Rd, Austin, TX 78749, on Saturday, July 20, 2019 at 1:00pm.

Thomas was born on February 22, 1947 in Columbia Missouri to Thomas H Rapp, II, and Helen (Curtright) Rapp. He was married on July 13th, 1984. Tom served in the US Navy, loved his family and friends, and enjoyed playing golf and bowling! Tom had a bachelor’s degree in education and retired from the Texas Department of Transportation where he worked in training and development.

He is survived by his wife of exactly 35 years, Jovita “Jodi”, Bentley- Rapp; son, William Rapp (Misty) of Raytown MO.; stepchildren, Elliott (Andrea) Bentley of Columbia, MO, Aaron Bentley of Austin, TX, Jennifer Rotert of Kansas City, KS; grandchildren, McKayla Obrist, Malena Obrist, Morgan Obrist, Riley Rapp, Alyssa Rapp, Dublin and Murphy Bentley; great-grandchildren, Andrew Thorpe, Jr., Ray Town, Ivy Rose Vinsonhaler, and McKenzie Jones. Thomas is preceded in death by his parents.

The family would like to express their gratitude to Jodi’s family and friends for always being there for her in times of need. Tom would not want any tears shed over his passing, but if you should shed a tear, let it be in that of joy and remembrance. This quote from Bobby Jones sums up Tom’s life, “golf is the closest game to the game we call life, you get bad breaks from good shots, you get good breaks from bad shots- but you have to play the ball where it lies”. This is who Tom was! We were a simple couple- when we exchanged gifts, they usually weren’t expensive, but they were ALWAYS special. In 35 years, my two favorite gifts were a plaque where Christopher Robin says to Winnie the Pooh, “If you live to be 100, I want to live to be 100 years minus one day so I never have to live without you”. The other gift was a picture of he and I with a saying at the bottom, “Once in a lifetime you meet someone who changes everything”.