Thomas Walter GRIMM

GRIMM, WICKS, ALEMAN, STEVENSON, GURTIN, GURTIN-JOHNSON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:45

Thomas (Tom) Walter Grimm
December 6, 1937 ---- February 14, 2022

Thomas (Tom) Walter Grimm, age 84 passed away at Banner Baywood Hospital in Mesa, Arizona on Monday, February 14, 2022. Tom was born December 6, 1937 in Dexter, Minnesota to Walter and Iola (Wicks) Grimm. He graduated from Kanawha, Iowa high school in 1954.

Following graduation from high school, Tom went to Linotype School and learned how to set type for newspaper print. Tom joined the U.S. Navy as a Radioman where he learned Morse Code and was assigned to the USS Stoddard. He was dispatched to the South China Sea. His tour of duty was extended due to the Vietnam War.

After leaving the Navy, Tom began working for the Minnesota Highway Department. In Tom's final employment move where he became a Signing Supervisor in 1987, he met the love of his life, Sandra who also worked for the Minnesota DOT. Tom and Sandra bought a home on the Mississippi River outside of Brainerd where they lived together for 36 years and married in February 1997. Tom worked until his retirement in 1997. In 2003, Tom and Sandra purchased their winter home in Apache Junction, AZ.

Tom was a great fisherman who passed his love of fishing onto his sons and many grandchildren. He also had a passion for birding and enjoyed feeding the hummingbirds.

Left to cherish his memory are his wife of 25 years, Sandra; daughter Linda Aleman; sons Thomas E. (Jennifer) Grimm of Merrifield, MN and Chad M. (Rosie) Grimm of Dallas, TX; brother Terry (Julie) Grimm of Garner; and sister Deanna (Jock) Stevenson of Cedar Rapids, IA. Stepchildren Scott (Renee) Gurtin of Sun City, AZ, and Lisa Gurtin-Johnson of St. Cloud, MN. Tom was preceded in death by his parents, Walter and Iola Grimm, brothers Howard and Robert Grimm, and infant son Jason Grimm.