LiveCam at
Zion National Park . Utah
LiveCam at Bandon . Oregon
Oct
26
To me, Tom Barnett is a bear of a guy. He is the kind of guy who‘s gruff on the exterior but a teddy bear in spirit. Tom had been with KATU for all the time I was working at the TV station in Portland. Later, he moved on to work for Grass Valley. He was one of the engineers who made sure everything behind the scenes worked. He’d sit at his work bench with solder gun in hand and miraculously bring “stuff” back to life. When some poor news “photog” would bring Tom a broken news camera, there would be a calculated, slow glance up as though Tom was making it guilty clear WHO broke the camera. Be it true or not, photogs took really good care of their cameras to avoid that look. You gotta love a guy like that. Some took his manner very seriously, I did too, but looked beyond it to see he was a lovable, respectful guy who got things done, even if he blew off a little steam in the process. He didn’t really mean to be gruff…. but, yes he did, but not really. That kind of guy. It all worked, so you couldn’t help but like him.
I remember the time when Tom Barnett, Sheila Hamilton (now with KINK radio), Mac(my pup) and I, were all huddled inside the KATU LIVE Satellite Truck on a wind chilled, rainy night in a small town on the Northern Oregon coast. We were waiting for our 11pm LIVE newscast about coastal flooding. It was Thanksgiving Day, restaurants and gas stations were closed, we hadn’t eaten, and so, there we sat, imagining the great feast we were missing 100 miles away in the Portland KATU newsroom . On Thanksgiving, the station provided the working news crews with a complete dinner of turkey, gravy, all the trimmings and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. But, here we were with nothing but a bag of M&M Peanut Candies and some Kettle Chips. We joked, laughed about our situation and then shared our little feast. Funny, how having so little, we made this a most memorable Thanksgiving celebration. In that moment, we were family. So, today we’ve lost more than a friend, we’ve lost family.
Tom, I hope you’re smiling in heaven today, I know YOU ARE.
We’ll all miss you, ol’ Bear.
Tom passed away at his Portland home on October 23rd after a lengthy battle with cancer.
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