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After 32 years with the City of Saint Paul as public works director and in related positions, Tom hasn't let any grass grow under his feet during retirement (except maybe at his and Mari's home on the West Side bluff overlooking downtown Saint Paul) , spending the last 10 years at TKDA doing municipal engineering and marketing consulting work. Tom considers them both to be great places to work as an engineer.

Other recent professional activities have included ASCE Public Agency Peer reviews for Monterey County, California, and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina;  the Minnesota 2050 Steering Committee and Rail Committee; and an MSPE Engaging Minnesota Engineers in Critical Infrastructure Seminar. Community activities have included Public Art Saint Paul board chair and committee member, U of M Civil Engineering Department Advisory Committee, ASCE national board director, and Eureka Recycling board chair.

In the past, Tom received the APWA-MN 1997 Hugo G. Ericksen Award for Chapter Service; City Engineers Association of Minnesota 1995 Engineer of the Year Award; American Society of Civil Engineers 1994 Government Civil Engineer of the Year Award; APWA 1994 Top Ten Public Works Leaders of the Year Award; and APWA-MN 1993 Swearingen Award for Chapter Service. And, he consistently and happily neglected home improvement chores.

While at the U of M in the 60’s, Tom survived Lower Division years spiting a couple of nasty professors; enjoyed his civil engineering courses, particularly those in water resources; and fondly remembers character-building experiences walking around campus in his Army ROTC uniform (unarmed) and being warmly regarded by thousands of idealistic draft dodgers. Tom later spent exciting duty time building infrastructure projects for South Vietnam.

Tom is a life-long Saint Paul resident, so far. He grew up on the East Side, but made a dramatic move to the West Side in 1975.

Tom has been happily married to Mari Oyanagi Eggum for 30 years. They raised two kids in Saint Paul; Julianne, married last August to Jerrald Spencer, and currently finishing her PhD studies in bio-medical engineering at the U while starting a new job at Medtronic (yes!); and Andrew, who graduated from the Carlson School in 2012 majoring in marketing and international business, and now works (another yes!) at the Nielson Corporation assigned to a General Mills team. New son Jerrald works for a transportation logistics support company and is a lead vocalist in Manage Quad, a swing/house/pop fusion band recently featured in City Pages.

In the last couple of years, Mari and Tom have traveled to Brazil, San Francisco, Napa County, Canadian Rockies, Thunder Bay, St. Louis, Red Lodge, Lander, Denver, and Milwaukee.  Tom has been practicing yoga for seven years and also likes reading, wine (mostly drinking it), and digitizing his vinyl classical, blues, and 60’s folk music collection.