Tommy Tyler, Sr.
Tommy Norman Tyler, Sr. left us peacefully on July 6, 2025, after a full life of laughter, inventing, and tinkering with electronics. Tommy was born January 26, 1931, in Anniston, Alabama to parents Ernest Kyle Tyler and Mary Emma Pacely Tyler. He spent much of his childhood in Birmingham, Alabama before moving with his family to the Panama Canal zone. He lived in Panama from the ages of 12-19, where his father worked on the construction of the canal. After completing junior college in Panama, he moved to Nashville where he completed his degree in Engineering at Vanderbilt University. After a brief stint working as an engineer, he married Jo Ann Hobbs and enlisted in the Navy. After completing OCS training, he was stationed in Washington D.C. working in Naval Intelligence. When he was discharged from the Navy, he moved to Colorado, where he worked for Honeywell (and continued in the Navy Reserves). In 1970 he took a job with Colorado Instruments and moved to Broomfield, Colorado. In 1972 he co-founded Commodore Engineering with a partner in order to design and manufacture calculators. After some time, he left Commodore and joined Translogic Corporation, designing pneumatic tube material handling systems until his retirement.
After losing his wife Jo Ann in 1983, Tommy later met and married Barbara Brown Quintana, who has remained by his side ever since. They moved to Evergreen, Colorado in retirement, where they both enjoyed having deer, moose, foxes, and many other wildlife in their yard. In 2015 they moved to Littleton Colorado.
One of Tommy’s greatest joys in life (other than family) were probably his West Highland White Terrier dogs (4 of them over the years), who he and Barb absolutely adored. Tommy was also a magnificent piano player and could play (mostly classical) music for hours from memory. But the thing that Tommy spent the most time on outside of work was his eternal search for the perfect ‘Commercial Killer’. As a tinkerer and engineer, he continually sought ways to build a box that would automatically recognize and mute commercials on the TV. He published articles in technical magazines, had his own on-line store selling parts to make customized remote controls, and constantly designed and manufactured custom parts and remotes. As recently as last year at the age of 93 he was still publishing articles and building products.
Tommy is predeceased by siblings Lewis, Jane, Kay, and Mary Naomi, as well as his first wife Jo Ann Hobbs Tyler and his son Tommy Norman Tyler Jr. He leaves behind his wife Barbara and daughter Carol Zampell, son-in-law Rick Zampell, grandchildren Kyle, Jeff, and Brooke Zampell, as well as great-grandson Owen Jeffrey Zampell.
No public services are planned, and consistent with his practical nature, Tommy requested no flowers or donations be given.