Tom Vrolyk died last month from a fall at his  home in Inverness. He was 57 years old. At a memorial service held on Sunday in Bolinas, where he worked at the Resource Recovery District, friends recalled a talented sailor and a gentle man.

Born outside Los Angeles, Tom was a precocious young boy. “By the time he was 5, he could read, write, add, subtract, multiply and divide—and play Blackjack and beat adults,” recalled his sister, Anne Vrolyk. 

She related how their grandfather used to discourage them from gambling by winning and taking their money. Not so for Tom, who trounced his grandfather soundly one day and announced, “Okay, I think I’ve played enough!” before waltzing off with the winnings, much to his grandfather’s chagrin.

Tom started sailing at age 3, and became the Junior Commodore of the Los Angeles Yacht Club at 14. He earned “best downwind helmsman” honors at the 1994 Tahiti Race for piloting an 82-foot sloop named Sorcery. “We’ve been sailing for our entire lives together, from as recently as a few months ago,” said his brother, Beau Vrolyk. “I could always trust him. And as different as he was from me, he could always trust me.”

After running a pool cleaning business for 10 years, Tom earned an associate degree in engineering. He went on to work for several companies, including Sportvision, Inc., where he digitized and mapped special effects for most of the tracks on the NASCAR racing circuit.

Tom worked for many years as a delivery man before landing in Bolinas, where he was a part-time driver for Star Route Farms, and at the Resource Recovery Center. He volunteered for Food for Families, which donates weekly meals to local families in need. 

Relatives on Sunday agreed that they cherished most Tom’s kind and gentle nature, despite his longtime struggles with alcohol.

“He was a sweet, kind person who looked at the world through rose-colored glasses, and he expected everyone to be nice to each other,” his uncle George Stanley wrote in a letter that was read at the memorial. “His personal devils followed him relentlessly, but it was these other qualities that endeared him to me.”

 

Tom is survived by his parents, John Junior Vrolyk and Alyce Lea Stanley Vrolyk; his sister, Anne Katherine Vrolyk; his brother, John Roger “Beau” Vrolyk; his sister-in-law, Stacey Vrolyk; many aunts, uncles and cousins, and a niece and a nephew.