Thomas Patrick Lattimer

Thomas P. Lattimer, 70, of Anaheim, CA, passed away on Thursday, July 13th, 2023 after a brief illness. Family and friends are invited to a visitation on Monday, July 31st, from 11 AM - 1 PM at Doran Funeral Home, 4 East Bayard St., Seneca Falls. A procession to St. Columbkille Cemetery for a graveside service will immediately follow, where Tom will be laid to rest with his parents. Donations in memory may be made to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, National Woman's Hall of Fame, or a charity of one's choice. Tom's family is grateful for all the expressions of love and support already received.

Tom was born upstate in New York, March 10, 1953, second son of Stan and Kay Lattimer, and lived six years in Seneca Falls before moving to Anaheim, California in 1959. He went to Sunkist School, South Junior High, and graduated a semester early from Katella High School in 1971.

Tom's adventurous spirit sent him hitchhiking through Europe that year with boyhood friend, Paul Noonan. He went on to Cal State Long Beach, as an Industrial Technology major, switched majors as a senior, and graduated with his B.A. in Geography.

Tom's strong work ethic embodied his "work hard, play hard" philosophy. His early jobs were in foodservice at Pup 'n Taco and Chicken Delight. At 18, he began learning the cabinet trade, at friend and neighbor, Don Sinclair's cabinet shop, leading to a lifelong career in the cabinet, millwork and fixture industry.

With a keen sense of humor, dry wit, business sense, caregiver's heart, and artist's soul, Tom was very private, and fiercely loyal to friends and family. He started an art studio in the family garage, where he spent hours drawing and painting. He learned guitar and was an avid lover of all types of music, a lifelong fan of the Grateful Dead, among others. He worked long days, still having energy to enjoy friends, hit parties, attend concerts, and embark on cross-country drives and camping trips with friends or family. Tom's unique taste in cars was legendary, tooling around California in a succession of classics (Pontiacs, old Jaguar Mark II sedan, Cadillac convertible) and whimsical cars, such as his refurbished ambulance that was perfect to show up in at a Halloween party with a couple friends as "Ghostbusters."

Despite hard knocks in business, Tom's remarkable tenacity, resilience, grace, sense of humor, and strong support from family and friends enabled him to keep moving forward, professionally and personally. Following his father Stan's death, Tom sold his business interests (including his whimsically named company, "MT Cabinets") to live with and take care of his ailing mother in Anaheim, as her devoted primary caregiver for five years. Even while doing so, Tom also learned to play pedal steel guitar, with "The Pigeons," a popular So Cal country music band in the early 2000s.

Tom's wit and zest for life endeared him to family and friends. Always, always eager to pursue anything for fun, his nieces and nephews dubbed him "Uncle Dude." Tom was also the family historian and genealogist, collecting and curating a trove of information on the family history that his surviving siblings are now working feverishly to back up. Tom is survived by three brothers, Jerry, Brian, and Tim, his sister Trish, as well as five nieces (April, Traci, Amanda, Katy, and Micaela) and two nephews (Michael and Gabriel).

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