Terribly sad, please pray, a crappie.com inspiration and great young man has passed.

[Slab]

An inspiration and, can I say co-founder (in a way) of Crappie.com has passed away. Tommy Jozsi died at the young age of 27. Tommy and his family grew up with my family, taking family vacations just about every year. You see, Tommy's Parents are essentially mine and my wifes best friends. We all knew each other before we got married, through working together at Grainger Inc.. We attended each others weddings and raised our children together. I hunted and fished with Tommy and his father Tom (TomTom on the forum) for years and years. Particularly where Tom's folks owned a farm in Northern Wisconsin (love that place).

Anyway, it was TomTom that was the super Crappie Fisherman back then and from that we bought Crappie.com. That's how it all started, an idea over drinks in my basement in Lindenhurst Illinois in 1996. And his son Tommy was the direct inspiration for the "teach a child to fish" logo we used and often still repeat.

Tommy is pictured here (above) in a screen shot of the crappie.com home page from 1999 is in the upper right corner. And here is a story which TomTom wrote back then about that Labor Day outing: Fishing with dad

Lets all pray for Tommy's family. Tommy was a great kid, always willing to help out in any way he could. He loved the outdoors, he loved his family and his dogs. RIP Tommy, your smile will be dearly missed by all that knew you.

Obituary information for Thomas "Tom" C. Jozsi

that's his obituary