Thomas L. Stolt

June 28, 1964 – May 7, 1994

Submitted by Evelyn Stolt, mother

We are happy to submit this quilt square dedicated in memory of Thomas Stolt. It was lovingly designed by his sister Judy and her husband Steve. Tom was the youngest of six children and raised a country boy. He had a deep, abiding appreciation of nature’s beauty, music in all forms and the arts and humanities. Books and the written word held a special interest and was one of his primary vocations.

He was always intrigues by the mysteries if the universe. Manned flights and unmanned interplanetary probes through the years showed is many of our Solar System’s awesome contents. The Hubbell Telescope provided incredible glimpses of the cosmos beyond. These were some of his great loves. That fascination with Carl Sagan’s “real” outer space made him a natural, lifelong fan of science fiction, Star Wars, Star Trek, and other genres of that kind. In his teen years, he spent four years building a complex, four-foot long model spacecraft out of bits and pieces of other model kits and small, exotically shaped household and hardware items. He ultimately entered it in a model Space Ship contest and won First Prize. It is a magnificent craft and is pictured on the quilt along with a picture of a collector’s plate showing the crew of the original Star Trek enterprise.

While attending college, he worked as a reporter for the Mankato Free press newspaper and also submitted editorials for the weekly MSU college newspaper. One of the highlights oh his reporting career was being assigned to cover the Start Trek convention in Minneapolis hosted that year by both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. The opportunity to interview, photograph and talk with two of his TREK idols was a dream come true for him!