Thomas 'Tom' G. Anglin, 81

“Tell me a sea story,” Tom Anglin would say. He passed peacefully at home on Guemes Island, Wash., on a beautiful afternoon, Sept. 12, 2024. To say that Tom was a larger-than-life character is an understatement.

He was born in Seattle, Wash., on July 3, 1943, to (Thomas) Dale and Ila Jean Anglin. Tom grew up in the small town of Coolin on Priest Lake, Idaho, where his love for fishing began. He graduated from Priest River Lamanna High School in 1962, before joining the U.S. Navy. 

Tom’s sea story began boarding the USS Burton Island Icebreaker in Seattle bound for Antarctica for Operation Deepfreeze to resupply McMurdo Station and then the Arctic becoming a shellback on the journey.

Tom took his electronics training from the Navy to the North Slope of Alaska, forging life-long friendships as an electrician before buying his first boat, the Bubble Cuffer II. Each vessel was a new chapter in the greatest commercial fishing adventure: the little Katrina, Katrina, Baltic Sea, and finally, the Kona-Kai. Spanning ports from Sausalito to SE AK and Hawaii to SW Alaska, trolling for king salmon to pot fishing king crab in the Bering Sea. 

He married the love and equal of his life, Laura Strong, and for 22 years they built a life nothing short of perfection in Homer, China Poot, Kona, and finally settling on Guemes, where they could watch the ships in the channel, reflect on world travel and enjoy the company of friends and family.

You may have known Thomas G. Anglin as T.G., Red, or even Hippie Tom. A guy’s guy, adoring husband, great father, uncle, godfather, grandfather, son, brother, “pops,” and role model as it turns out to so many that have reached out to say the world is not the same upon his departure.

Tom is preceded in death by his parents and brother, Walter “Butch” Anglin. He is survived by his spouse, Laura Anglin; his daughters, Lorraine Day and Marina Leight; grandchildren, Ila and Louie Leight, and Lavinia, Damian, and Violet Day; and his sister, Tia Barrett. If you have been aboard this journey you will miss the twinkle in his eyes, his belly laugh, ability to pull off practical jokes, and his sea stories.

To share memories of Tom, please visit evanschapel.com.