Thomas E. Rygg

Thomas E. Rygg, born March 21, 1945, passed taking a short cut to meet with his maker on Sept. 30 2012, after suffering from lung disease and cancer.

Thomas known by his many friends and relatives as just Tom was a unique man with many talents. He was a third-degree black belt in tae kwon do, which made him rather formidable. After graduating from Central High, he joined and served as a security officer in the U.S. Air Force in the U.S. at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming guarding our strategic missile sites and overseas in Turkey. While in Turkey, besides his security duties, he taught English at the Turkish embassy. After his honorable discharge, he worked as draftsman for Boeing Aircraft in Seattle then came back to Superior and joined the merchant marine sailing on the Great Lakes.

Later, he moved to Wichita, Kan., to be with his brother Kerry and drove one of Kerry’s semi trucks over the road, driving coast to coast and border to border. After several years on the road, he decided to move back to Superior and went to the Superior Technical Institute and finished in the top of his class and was the class valedictorian.

Tom was also the consummate outdoors man, during his Air Force training he was sent to survival school and was dropped into a forest and had to live off the land for a week. Since then he has had a number of loves. They were hunting, fishing, women and the Green Bay Packers. Tom was very artistic and did portraits in charcoal and had the best handwriting one could read.

Tom will be greatly missed by his family and friends and is survived by his brothers Richard of South Range and Kerry of Wichita, Kan.; and his sister Clara Stevens of Silvis, Ill.

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