Tom shadowed his father, Chet, beginning at age 10 on construction sites in Florida.

After Chet's passing when Tom was 13, Tom quit school at age 16 to work full time in Boca Raton, Florida constructing the then-new Wood Field Hunt Club neighborhood.

At age 17 Tom began working in Marine Construction building marinas, sea wall, and docks.

In his early 20's, and now a family man, Tom took a job at a prestressed concrete yard in Jacksonville building concrete barriers, electric transmission poles, I-Beams for overpasses, and Bridge Decks.

Following an injury Tom transferred to Pompano Beach and worked as a quality control inspector in the prestressed concrete industry.  He became DOT Certified for cylinder testing, and he quickly became the supervisor of the lab and of the entire batch plant.

A year or so later he returned to the field.

In 1990 Tom had a double hernia surgery resulting from the work environment, but eager to quickly return to the workforce he drove a cab which gave him an opportunity to spend more time with his children.

In 1992 Tom moved to Tampa and started working at Pellican Marine.  He started as a carpenter, then after two weeks became a foreman, and within four years became construction manager.  One year later he became VP - at age 31 - at what was now York Bridge Concepts.

In 2001 Tom left York and founded Patterson Services, a business dedicated to building outdoor kitchens.  This business was profitable up until the great 2008 recession.

In 2008 Tom and wife Donna founded We Clean It, LLC., a home and office cleaning business in Tampa.  They still operate this business today.

Seeing an opportunity, in the late 2000's and early 2010's Tom entered the retail and food concession industries.

Semi-retired by 2012, Tom went back into the bridge construction industry for two years to help a friend with a project.

In 2014, at age 48, Tom actually sustained a career golfing.

In 2017 Tom went back to bridge building again, this time forming a business partnership with a colleague.

In 2023, Tom drove to Athens for a visit with brother in law Joe Silva to help Joe with a minor home renovation project.

While in Athens, Paul asked Tom for help on several property management renovation projects.  This cascaded into several concurrent projects.

Tom moved son Tommy down to Athens from Ohio, where they work full time on Notel Motel projects with their business Patterson Services.