Thomas Avery

Thomas Avery

Hopkinton

Thomas Avery, 78, died Monday, September 22, 2025, at University Hospital, Iowa City.

Funeral services will be held 11:00 Saturday morning, September 27, 2025, at the Hopkinton Community Church with interment in the Hopkinton Cemetery with military honors. Friends may call after 9:00 a.m. Saturday at the church. Goettsch Funeral Home, Monticello, has taken Tom and his family into their care.

Surviving are his wife, Anne, a sister Patricia Avery, his brother John (Tammy) Avery, a brother-in-law Don (Phyllis) Tapken, in-laws Linda Shelton, Jeanette (Howard Chapman) Davis, Bill (LaVonne) Sternhagen, Duane Sternhagen, Carl (Betty) Sternhagen, Rosie (Donny) Topping, many special nieces and nephews, and his faithful companions, Harley and Honda. He was preceded by his parents, siblings, Bonnie Tapken, James (LaQuita) and Ronnie Avery, in-laws, Leo and Luella Sternhagen, Mary Lou Turnis Schilling, Adrian Turnis, Francis Schilling, Roy Shelton, Wayne Davis and Judy Sternhagen.

Thomas Gene Avery was born at the Willet Maternity Hospital, Manchester, on May 2, 1947, the son of Lewis (Ace) and Betty Richardson Avery. He graduated from the Maquoketa Valley Schools in 1965. He served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. Following his return from service he worked at Allis Chalmers and later Harnischfeger in Cedar Rapids and a brief time at Murray Grain. He retired from Energy Manufacturing in 2012 as a shipping clerk. Tom married Anne Sternhagen on May 17, 1986 at St. John Lutheran Church, Hopkinton.

In early years Tom was a drag racer going to Nieta Raceway in Cedar Falls and Cordoba Raceway in Cordoba, Ill. He enjoyed fishing, hunting, camping, softball bowling, horseshoes, and coon dog racing. He was a member of the Hopkinton Fire Department for 25 years.