Richard Thomas ‘Tom’ Booth passed from this life November 22, 2018. He was born December 23, 1935 to parents, John Joseph and Eleanor Anna Booth in Baltimore, Maryland. At the age of three he moved to Rosedale, Maryland outside Baltimore. In Rosedale, he attended Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Rosedale Elementary School, and Kenwood High School.
At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Air Force and completed basic training at Sampson Air Force Base in Geneva, New York. He then attended jet fighter mechanic’s school at Amarillo Air Force Base, Amarillo, Texas. Upon completing the course, he was assigned to Eglin Air Base in Fort Walton Beach, Florida as a jet fighter crew chief. In 1955 he was transferred to Misawa Air Force Base in northern Japan as a jet fighter crew chief. He completed his enlistment in December 1956 and was employed by Martin-Marietta in Baltimore as an assembly line inspector. In March 1957, he reenlisted in the Air Force and was assigned to Patrick Air Force Base in Cocoa Beach, Florida as a jet fighter mechanic and crew chief. In 1960, he retrained into the missile career field and was assigned to the 6550th Guided Missile Squadron at Cape Canaveral as a mechanic on the Mace Missile research and development program. Upon completion of the Mace program, he was assigned to the newly formed Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) research and development program at Cape Canaveral as a mechanic and silo operations coordinator, and was subsequently assigned as a quality control inspector and Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC) of the Minuteman Quality Control Division. He was the first military member assigned to a launch crew consisting of Boeing personnel to launch a Minuteman ICBM. As a non-commissioned officer, Tom rose to the rank of Senior Master Sergeant (SMSgt) and was the youngest SMSgt in the entire Air Force at age 32.
In 1968, he was accepted for an Air Force commissioning program. After completing work on the Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, he then went on to Officers’ Training School at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in September 1968. Following completion of the computer maintenance officers’ course at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, he was assigned as a chief of computer maintenance at the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) Air Defense Division Headquarters at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona.
In 1971, he applied for an Air Force Master’s degree program and was assigned to the University of Missouri-Rolla where he earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science. Tom was then assigned to the Headquarters, Air Force Communications Command at Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base in Grandview, Missouri as a lead programmer/analyst for developing software for statistical analyses and tracking installation of worldwide Air Force communications systems, electronics, and navigational aids.
After completing a tour at Clark Air Base in the Philippines as a programmer/analyst in automated weather communications systems, Tom was assigned to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) Headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. At SAC, he was the officer-in-charge of worldwide weather communications in support of SAC bomber, tanker, and missile operations.
He retired from the Air Force in October, 1978 and worked for Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company as data communications manager. In June 1980, he accepted a position with the MITRE Corporation on Offutt Air Force Base in support of developing and implementing SAC worldwide command and control systems.
In November 1983, he moved to Huntsville, Alabama to work for Teledyne Brown Engineering (TBE) on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program in the area of command and control and battle management. Subsequent to the TBE employment, he worked for several other companies in Huntsville, including SRS Technologies, Titan Systems, and Computer Sciences Corp. Tom spent the last 14 years of his working career with Tec-Masters, Inc. in support of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapons system modeling and simulation. Tom retired from Tec-Masters, Inc. in 2010 at age 75. Immediately after retirement he worked as a volunteer for three years in Church of the Nativity, Episcopal office. He worked and loved working as long as possible until Parkinson’s disease forced him to resign.
He was a loving and devoted husband, father, grandfather and friend. He loved to be outside doing anything, and he especially loved working in the yard. His lawn and flower beds were the envy of many. He planted trees across the United States, in every state he was stationed in or lived in. He kept his cars in show room condition, and was often asked who did his detailing. He was meticulous, particular and driven. He believed in doing things right and was not afraid to share with others what that meant for a given situation. He had an infectious laugh which invariably caused everyone around him to laugh. He loved this country and our military, and after retiring from the Air Force he worked in the defense industry another 32 years supporting the war fighter.
On accomplishment he was particularly proud of was being instrumental in starting the engineering co-op program between Tec-Masters, Inc. and the University of Alabama, Huntsville. He mentored a number of young engineering students who came to love and admire him for his engineering expertise, guidance and patience.
In April 1989, Tom married Jane Price, the love of his life. Tom is survived by Jane; two children by a previous marriage, Richard T. ‘Timothy’ Booth and Kathleen E. Dempsey (Sean); and grandchildren, Katelyn Morgan Dempsey and Ian Mathew Dempsey. Tom was predeceased by one son, Thomas Michael Booth.
Visitation will be from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Thursday, November 29, 2018 at Church of the Nativity, Episcopal in Ridley Hall. The funeral service will follow in the church at 11:00. Burial with full military honors will be held at Maple Hill Cemetery.
Flowers are welcomed, as are donations in Tom’s memory to the National Parkinson’s Research Foundation, or a charity of your choice
