Thomas Gary Ladd

Thomas Gary Ladd, 74, died November 17, 2017 in Newnan, Georgia. A Celebration of Life will be conducted Saturday December 9 at 2:00 P.M. at the American Legion Hall in Columbia TN, with visitation starting there at 1:00 P.M. The body was donated to medical education.The family suggests memorial donations to "Maury County Needy Veterans" through James Patterson, jpatterson@maurycounty-tn.go, 308 West Seventh Street, Columbia, TN 38401. Oakes & Nichols Funeral Directors are assisting the family with arrangements and condolences may be extended online at oakesandnichols.com.Tom is a descendent of the Ladd and Alderson families that settled in the Turkey Creek and Leipers Creek area of Maury County in the early 1800s. The son of the late Nadie Gary Ladd and the late Thomas Rye Ladd, he grew up on the family farm on Turkey Creek and Fields Hollow. He attended Santa Fe School and Central High School in Columbia, where he was very involved in managing the football and basketball teams. Tom graduated high school in 1961 and enlisted in the Navy for four years. After military service he attended Auburn University, graduating in 1969 with a BS in Physics and a minor in English Literature. After working for Shell Oil exploration as a petroleum geophysicist for two years, he attended the University of Tennessee Space Institute in Tullahoma, TN, where he earned a Masters in Applied Mathematics. Most of his working life was spent working as an applied mathematician at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL. He did spend a 5 year assignment with the Science Technology Center Far East (STCFE) in Japan, for which he received commendations and a Department of Defense (DOD) wide specialty worker of the year award. During this overseas time he also extensively tutored numerous Japanese students in English. Upon returning to Redstone Arsenal, he earned a Graduate Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). After retiring from the DOD in 1994, he spent about half his time over the next decade teaching English in Korea and China in college preparatory secondary schools and technical universities and the other half of his time on the family farm where he grew up. Wherever Tom lived and traveled, he spent his spare time reading literature and history, fanatically following Auburn football, cliff rappelling, mountaineering, and hiking. He especially enjoyed the countryside around his ancestral home on Turkey Creek, TN. He was beloved for his sense of humor, his mischief, and his sense of adventure. Tom was also known as Gary and T to his family, as Tootie to his high school classmates, and as Papa to his grandsons. He is survived by his daughter, Michelle Marie Ladd (Thom) Williams, 3 grandsons Caleb Michael, Alton Rye, and Thomas Noble Roy; 3 siblings, brothers Ronald Rye and George Caleb Ladd and sister Judith Anne Ladd Melton; and his former wife Lynda Umberger Ladd.