Tom Walker

1947 – 2024

A tribute by Carl Haynie and Dan Underbrink of TWIM

We lost a giant in Pacific Northwest Swimming this week.

A longtime PNA and PSM member since early 2005, Tom competed in many swim meets, all the while disarming those he met with a broad smile and his trademark humor.

Once, while competing at a swim meet in 2014 at Mt. Hood Community College in Oregon, he was DQ’d by a wheelchair-bound official he had coined “Mr. Ironsides” (Tom had a nickname for everybody). Tom politely asked what the infraction was, probably made a joke or two, and ended up befriending the man (although the DQ still stuck).

Afterwards, the October 2014 Aqua Master newsletter featured a summary of the meet and included a photo of Tom with the caption: “Thomas Walker: Puget Sound Masters – a very friendly guy who swims many Oregon meets”.

The phrase a very friendly guy sums up Tom and also appears on the TWIM Team website as: Established in 2015, Team Walker International Masters grew out of the vision of one very friendly guy, Thomas Walker, whose love of swimming was legendary and whose drive inspired us all.

Tom was the inspiration behind TWIM, Team Walker International Masters, after he showed up one day to an event in 2014 wearing a T-shirt that read “TEAM WALKER | Lifetime Member”. His closest swimming friends at the time fell in love with that, and the rest is, as they say, history.

His vision brought together a dedicated group of competitive swimmers, who work out alone, or in small groups, all around Western Washington. “Tom’s people” share a love of swimming and a love of competition.

Tom’s vision included providing swimming education for adult swimmers, and TWIM has sponsored more than 10 swim clinics as of September 2025. As Tom would say “Our sport has four strokes, and we need to provide opportunities for swimmers to better themselves in all four.”

Tom was a true polymath, a multi-talented and multi-faceted soul, a Renaissance Man if you will, who learned to read Greek, play multiple instruments, and take in and partake in all forms of history and art. Heck, one of his friends even got him into birding. All the while he exuded a joy-filled spirit propelled by a wonderful sense of humor, a great writing ability, and a deep faith in a higher being.

Tom loved TWIM, and he would never miss an opportunity to cheer on his teammates prior to an event. He would write us each time with perhaps a little bit of humor but always with a lot of love:

Once again the Hour is upon us. Time to live out our Credo, which is to get up on the blocks at every opportunity and give it our all, for ourselves and for our teammates. In keeping with sacred tradition, I have lit the Victory Torch high atop TWIM Tower and started the Ceremonial Meet Clock. For it is in this very act, the summoning up of all within to step up upon these blocks, that our most enduring Victory lies. Rally around the Old Blue and White!

The Victory Torch dimmed at your passing, Tom, but your spirit will soon have it burning bright again.