Computer whiz who loved music, aeronautics and horology
PLAINFIELD — Thomas A. Carriker, 60, of Plainfield, formerly a long-time resident of North Reading, passed away on November 23, 2024 at the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.
Tom was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on April 2, 1964; he was the cherished only child to Russell and the late Jayne (Wunderlich) Carriker of North Reading.
Tom attended elementary, freshman and sophomore years in Long Island, N.Y., where he was keenly interested and involved in the Computer Club and HAM radio club. In his early teens, Tom passed the highest HAM Operator test and talked to people all over the world by HAM radio. He grew up in several U.S. states, the longest two locations he lived in were Long Island, N.Y., and North Reading, Mass.
He graduated from North Reading High School in 1982 and was a resident of North Reading for 40 years including with his own family and two children, Tawnya and Shawn Carriker, who also grew up, attended school in and graduated from North Reading High School (N.R.H.S.).
Tom enjoyed the challenge of fixing machines and computers all his life, from taking apart and rebuilding appliances as a young boy, to rebuilding car engines in high school, to coding software, to the design and creation of embedded electrical systems to support the manufacture of underwater cables. He was a personal computer history buff and an avid space, NASA and aeronautics maven, having attended a Junior Aeronautics Space Program and he wanted to be an astronaut. He would often fly planes around the world using realistic flight simulation programs on his computer.
Tom started his professional career in software engineering at Lotus Development Corp, where he met his wife, Donna, and worked on Lotus 1-2-3, the first spreadsheet program for the PC; Lotus Notes and other software. For over 30 years he worked at Lotus, Lotus’s subsidiary, Iris Associates, and IBM, after Lotus was bought by IBM. Tom grew his career from computer technician, network engineer, build engineer, Senior Software Engineer and Staff Engineer. He provided troubleshooting and backend development for numerous systems and software applications. If there was a bug that couldn’t be fixed, developers gave it to Tom to figure out and solve.
In addition to being a computer whiz, Tom was a devoted enthusiast of planes, trains and automobiles. He was also devoted to horology, the science and art of timepieces. He often took his family to visit aeronautic, train and clock museums. Tom completed a tremendous variety of challenging tasks such as repairing watches, clocks, cell phones, laptops, electronics, devices and systems. If he didn’t have a part, he made and jury-rigged replacements instead.
Tom was well-rounded by his love of music, attending many music concerts over the decades, as well as capturing special moments through photography and videography. Tom enjoyed sharing music from artists such as The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Rush, David Bowie, The Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, and The Bad Plus (a N.Y. jazz fusion band) with his friends and family throughout his lifetime.
Tom was the dearly loved husband of Donna L. (Doherty) Carriker for over 34 years, devoted father of Tawnya Carriker of Waltham, and Shawn Carriker and his fiancée Ashley Andrews of Ashland, dear son of Russell Carriker and his wife Sandra (Stone) of Haverhill, formerly of North Reading. Tom was predeceased by his mother Jayne (Wunderlich) Carriker formerly of Burwell, Nebraska, and was the son-in-law of Gloria and the late Daniel Doherty, Jr. of Stoneham; brother-in-law of the late Debi Strong and her husband David Strong, Dana Doherty, Diane Mondello, and Daniel Doherty III. Tom is further survived by his cousins and many nieces, nephews, and extended family.
Family and friends will gather at the Nichols Funeral Home, 187 Middlesex Ave. (Rte. 62), Wilmington, on Saturday, December 14, 2024, for visitation from 3-5 p.m., followed by a service at 5 p.m.
To leave a message of condolence for the family, please visit the funeral home’s website at www.nicholsfuneralhome.com.
