Tom O'Dea was a gentleman and a gentle man. Always open to discuss a wide range of clinical engineering topics, and always well informed. Tom did not just serve as Advocacy Chair for five years, he was an active leader and advocate for the profession, writing articles, rebutting criticisms, and strongly representing the best in our profession - always with dignity and grace. It was in recognition of his contributions to advocacy, beyond the chair, that prompted the Board to establish the Tom O'Dea Advocacy Award. I was privileged to work with Tom as recently as last year and found he had not lost any of his fervor for ACCE or clinical engineering. May he rest in peace.
Ray Zambuto
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I am shocked and saddened. I share Ray’s description of Tom as a pillar of our community, quietly without taking the stage he was always kind and generous with his time and leadership.
We received an email recently - he and his wife had just moved closer to family – making this even harder to take.
Please add my name to message of condolence to his family.
Manny Furst
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I so enjoyed working with Tom. Ray really says it best above. I remember his passion and his wonderful distinctive voice that would rouse everyone’s support!
Jennifer Ott
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Tom and I served on the CE Board of Examiners when it was under AAMI maybe 25 years ago.
He was a good man. A very happy and upbeat fellow.
Frank Painter
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The clinical engineering profession lost a good man with the passing of Tom O’Dea. Tom was one of the most pleasant individuals that I have come across in our profession. I fondly remember his consistently insightful commentary and contributions to our many years of mutual participation in AAMI’s annual “Manny” meeting. I had the pleasure of recently reconnecting with Tom on ACCE’s Hall of Fame committee. He was a great contributor to our deliberations about candidates and had a genuine interest in helping to raise the profile of our profession by helping to select well deserving members of the Hall of Fame. ACCE has rightfully named its clinical engineering advocacy award after Tom. We will miss you. Thank you for all that you did to serve and advocate for our profession.
Jim Keller
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It was a pleasure to see Minnesotan Tom O in action! Exemplifying his lifelong learning, here’s a 2016 Tom email: “I have been working on a measurement of risk and risk avoidance as it pertains to patient care equipment. I will communicate with you and the group when the draft is finished. Otherwise, I continue working in the medical device development area and have some limited success in going to market. We reached the second stage so far in applying for NIH grants in the areas of measurement of the lifetime extension of stored whole blood with a local blood bank and an improved mucus clearance system for cystic fibrosis and other diseases, (with Mayo). We also meet with Medtronic to work on the measurement of food flow times through the upper gastric system. Hope to report completion of these projects by 2018 (when I turn 80).”
You have to love Tom’s breadth of interests and passion for our profession! This passion was contagious as the Advocacy Award named in his honor attests. Thank you so much Tom O for your enduring contribution. Early in his career, he worked with college football people to measure concussive forces to improve helmets. Catch Tom O'Dea speaking about this and Clinical Engineering early days in this ACCE 2011 documentary video (Tom speaking at 3:25 and 13:25).
Tom Judd
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Tom O'Dea was clearly an eminent Clinical Engineer and an inspiration to many of us. I was very honored to receive the ACCE 2017 Thomas O'Dea Award named for a pioneering Clinical Engineer. His work in our profession was notable and his many contributions to our clinical engineering profession advanced the impact and effectiveness of our healthcare systems and patient care.
It was a privilege to work with him in various organizations and he will be sorely missed.
Thomas J. Bauld III
