Devoted surfer had big-hearted personality

A surfer who was in the lineup that day at Makaha told Jeannie Tom that it was the first wave of the first set of the first big swell of the winter season. Her husband, Leo, was riding the wave but slipped off his board.

The center of Leo’s surfboard rail knocked him unconscious, broke his neck and left him paralyzed. An off-duty lifeguard who was at the beach brought Leo to shore and started CPR before the ambulance came. He was transferred to Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, and then The Queen’s Medical Center West, where he died Oct. 29.

Leonard Jung Jun Tom, 64, a devoted church leader, lifelong surfer and friend to all, always said that’s how he wanted to die — in the waves, doing the thing he loved. This thought is a comfort to his wife, who made the decision early in their marriage to support his devotion to surfing.

“He even went surfing on our honeymoon,” she said. She is now wearing his wedding ring on a necklace. The ring is full of sand.

Tom was born in Honolulu on July 4, 1953. His father, Kam Hin Tom, and mother, Johanna Weber, met in Germany during World War II. He grew up in Foster Village, graduated from Radford High School in 1971, and got a degree in IT from Kapiolani Community College. He had many different careers over the years, but most recently was working as a property manager for condominium complexes.

Jeannie and Leo met through church. He was with the Oahu Church of Christ and she was a member of the Church of Christ in Los Angeles.

In 1997, she came with her parents on a vacation to Hawaii. A friend at her church who used to live in Hawaii arranged for Leo to pick up the family at their Waikiki hotel and take them to church services.

Leo showed up in his surfer-style VW van and bonded with her father, who later told Jeannie, “The Holy Spirit told me that he will be your husband.” The couple dated long-distance for a year and a half, and she moved to Hawaii three weeks before their wedding in October 1998. The first time they ever kissed was on their wedding day.

“We decided to do it right,” Jeannie said.

Like many watermen, Leo had almost extrasensory perception about things. He could look out at the ocean and know the best spots for fishing. He had a keen sense of smell and could tell if someone walked into a crowded conference room wearing a lei.

“He knew where every lychee and avocado tree was on the island, regularly checking them as he happened to drive by,” Jeannie said. “Boy, did he love lychee. He would go to every stand in Chinatown looking for the best fruit with the smallest seed.”

He would keep his eye out for flowers and would pick a plumeria off a tree for Jeannie, or find a puakenikeni blossom for her on their way to church.

“When he was in the hospital, I went out to my car to get my cellphone charger and my car was completely covered with plumeria blossoms,” Jeannie said. “And it was the only car in the parking lot covered in flowers.” On the day he died, Jeannie said she drove all the way home from the hospital to their house in Nuuanu with one single flower on her windshield that held on the whole way. She took it as a message from Leo.

The couple had a long-running joke they shared that started in the early days of their marriage. They would take turns hiding a rubber cockroach for the other to find. “He’d put it in my coffee cup and I’d find it and scream,” Jeannie said. “And then it would be my turn and I’d put it on his toothbrush.”

A few days ago, Jeannie opened up a drawer at their house and there, on the electronic tablet Leo used to check surfing conditions, was a big roach. “I thought it was the rubber one, but this one was real!” she said. She took that, too, as a message from Leo, taking the joke to the next level. He was funny that way. He’d want her to still enjoy their jokes together.

Jeannie is going through her husband’s journal, reaching out to the people he wrote about. He cared about so many people, hoped for them, had words of encouragement for them. She feels like his positive impact is still on the island even though he’s gone.

“I know where he is,” Jeannie said. “He’s waiting in the arena to cheer other people into heaven, and he’s saving a spot for me on the bench next to him.”

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.