Tom Dayle Collison

Obituary Thomas Dayle Collison was born March 29, 1948 in Sendai Japan and passed away September 17, 2010 at his home in Tacoma. Tom was preceded in death by his younger brother Pat and his mother, Grace. He is survived by his father, Dayle, his brother Mike, his sister Carla Huyck, brother in law Randy Huyck, and sister in law Julie Collison. Tom was an uncle to four nieces, Cassandra Sandwith, Alex and Michele Collison and Anna Huyck and his only nephew Tony Collison. Tom spent his youth as an "Army brat" traveling with his family where he first began his fascination with history, starting in Italy. He went to about 7 different schools around the world before graduating from Franklin Pierce High school in 1966. Tom was always a salesman, from childhood on. In his youth he would collect and then sell a variety of items such as buying a loaf of hot bread from the bakery and then selling slices of it on the bus way to school in Italy. As an adult he spent many years in the real estate industry as a sales person with the family business, Collison Realty. His passion though was always swords and civil war history. In recent years Tom turned his passion into a business as a collector of sword and civil war memorabilia. A favorite saying of Tom's was if I can't sell it I'll collect it. Many of his friends and family members will recall that sometimes it was hard to get him to talk about anything other than swords! Tom had a big heart and wanted to do things for others. When his younger brother Pat passed away 5 years ago, Tom took his job as a Godfather to heart with his nephew Tony. Tom spent hours trying to council Tony on how to be a Collison, to treat his mother with respect, the importance of a good Hawaiian shirt and the Tom way of doing things. He really took Tony under his wing. Tom was a son, brother, uncle, nephew, buddy and friend and will be greatly missed.