Thomas Keith Bishow was born February 4, 1960 in New Jersey to Raymond and Shirley Bishow. They first moved to Santa Monica, California in 1962. In 1964 they moved to Ojai, California, where he finished growing up, developed his master mechanic skills, and taste for thrills and adventures. It was then that motorcycles, trucks, and cars started to define Tom.
Tom joined the Navy, and served 1983-1986. On July 4, 1984 Tom met Anna in Ojai Park. They were married not even a year later on June 22, 1985.
On February 10, 1988 Tom and Anna gave birth to their first child, Britney Marie Bishow. He always said she was his late birthday present. Barely a year later, on May 1st, 1989 they gave birth to Keith Tyler Bishow, Tom's name sake. In 1991, Tom and Anna bought their house in the Gardnerville Ranchos, Nevada where they raised their family, and still reside today.
In 2008, Keith joined the Army, and shortly after Keith got his orders of deployment to Iraq. At that time, Tom signed up to be a civilian contractor as a master mechanic and went to Iraq to be close to Keith working on military vehicles. Tom was in Iraq for 13 months, working 7 days a week, never took a leave. Keith was again deployed in 2012 to Afghanistan and Tom followed suit. This time for a whole 18 months, working 7 days a week, never took a leave.
Tom finally came home to retire in March 2014. He took a break for a while, wearing the color off of his lazy boy recliner, before taking up his hobbies again. Tom lived in his garage; he was a total gear head.
His recent project was a '57 Dodge Sweptside (still in production). His projects included a go-cart he built with his kids, a Pinto he turned into his race car, to fixing pretty much everyone's car, and the never-ending oil changes on the family cars.
Tom has been riding motorcycles since he was 16. He loved street and dirt wheels. He even had a phase where he was a race car driver! On Sunday February 24, 2019 Tom was in his garage working on his Honda Shadow, gearing it up for a long distance adventure. He had just put on brand new extended foot pegs for a more comfortable ride, and took his bike out around the block to see how they felt. This was his final ride.
On March 3, 2019, at the age of only 59, Tom's family had to say goodbye to the strongest person they knew; a husband of 35 years and dad of 31 years. The Bishow family lives are forever changed.
Everyone who knew Tom lost a personality larger than life; his humor, his inappropriate jokes, his practical jokes, his loud laugh, his friendship, his tenacity for always going out of his way to be helpful. Even though he could sometimes be irreverent, he was the most genuine person anybody ever met. There is no synopsis good enough, nor time long enough to express his greatness.
He is survived by his wife Anna Maria Bishow, his daughter Britney Marie Bishow, and his son Keith Tyler Bishow.
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