Tom is the youngest of 7 children born and bred in West Auckland. He is very fortunate to still have both his parents alive, who will be celebrating 70 years of marriage this year. Family is very important to Tom, and he and his siblings communicate very regularly, even though some live overseas.
“Traditional values like respect, punctuality, honestly, are the upstanding values our family chooses to live by that are sadly under threat from today’s modern society”.
Tom lives in Glendene with his wife Jess, their 2 dogs and cat. Tom’s son and his partner Dani live onsite in the self-contained flat with their dog, and Tom & Jess’ nephew moved to Auckland from Nelson last year and also lives with them as well as his partner Brittany. As a family, they enjoy big family meals and playing board games and sometimes, drinking games! The dogs are also great entertainment for the family. Charlotte, Tom’s daughter lives in Sydney and recently married her husband Jonny.
Tom is incredibly proud of his children who are both qualified lawyers and forging exciting career paths for themselves. Jason recently started an exciting new role at a top law firm in Auckland city and Charlotte, working in Sydney, has been nominated for the top 30 under 30 litigation lawyers award. Tom and Jess couldn’t be happier for Jason and Charlotte and their exciting futures.
Two years ago, Tom bought himself a birthday present. His beloved Kamado BBQ. Jess and Tom both love entertaining their friends and family, but really, Tom just loves any excuse to cook his famous slow cooked beef ribs. Using the delicious and flavour packed rub he created himself, he coats the beef, then they’re on the Kamado for 4 hours. Definitely a crowd pleaser and a real passion of Tom’s.
Another passion of Tom’s is his Can Am off road vehicle. When he gets the chance, he’s off on an adventure over the sand dunes, often at Poutu and has even ridden alongside Greg Murphy. His friend Ian Foster introduced Tom to off roading almost 20 years ago, starting with a quad bike. It has been a wonderful bonding tool for him and his son. Tom got Jason on a quad bike when he was 14 and the two of them have been riding together ever since.
An original Old Boy, Tom was one of the very first students at Liston College when it opened in 1974. Tom’s son Jason also went to Liston College and now Tom’s nephew is a student there.
As a teenager, he and his Liston College friends started an annual rugby challenge between the Dali’s of Oratia and the Englesi (non Deli). This challenge went on for years, but as they got older it got harder on them all and eventually they stopped.
After a sort of ‘reunion’ at a friends funeral in 2020, Tom was not at all happy about only seeing his old mates at funerals, so decided to revive the Dali v Englesi challenge. It had been about 40 years since they had last done it, and to be fair, some of the guys weren’t in the same shape they used to be and they all rationalized that a game of rugby would be a bit much for them, so instead, Tom created a Games Day which he held at his home and consisted of 8 sport events; Golf/putting, lawn bowling, petanque, darts and pool.
Technically, the Englesi’s won the day, but no one really cared. It was all about getting together and having fun.