along the way, thom became a good friend of another brevard countian, george barley -- well, actually, i think george was from orange county. george was married to mary, and both of them dedicated their lives to restoration of the everglades. george and mary established the everglades trust and the everglades foundation, and then when george died in a very tragic death back in 1995, thom joined with mary to make sure that george barley's dream of a restored everglades became a reality. thom was an active member of the republican party, but i can tell you that the friendship between us, partisan membership didn't mean anything. we had a personal friendship, and you could often see that as he engaged in public service, but that was especially so when it came to the preservation and the restoration of the everglades. and his success extends other than this community and country service to a career in private practice, one of the founding partners of rumberger, kirk and calwell, and under thom's leadership, the firm's modest beginnings were quickly surpassed as it moved to all kinds of ne