Obituary of Thomas Richard Taipale

Thomas Richard Taipale, 62 passed away Thursday, Oct. 13 at University Hospital, Minneapolis, Minn. surrounded by his family after a hard fought battle with liver disease. Though he maintained his liver disease for five years, the liver cancer found earlier this year proved too much to overcome and Tom passed awaiting transplant surgery. Tom is survived by his three daughters, Kim (Grant) Saari of Maple, Kelly Taipale of Apple Valley, Minn. and Katie Botten of South Range; two grandsons Owen and Holden; his mother Bernice Taipale of Superior; one brother, Larry (Carol) Taipale of Maple; four sisters, Karen (Palmer) Rask of Eau Claire, Wis., Peggy Johnson of Iron River, Jan (Mark) Tyson of Rosemont, Minn., and Sue (Geoff) Couling of Bloomington, Minn. As well as nine nieces and nephews and a large extended family. He is preceded in death by his wife Kathy (2005) and his father Walter (2012). Tom grew up in Maple, attended Northwestern High School and the University of River Falls. He married Kathy Maki in 1978 and moved to Iron River where he worked at Hardware Hank before opening Tom's Hardware which has been in business for 27 years. Here it was said, "If Tom T. doesn't have it, you probably don't need it." A constant "tinkerer", there was always something to build or reinvent, the gears would grind and an unconventional solution was born. He loved entertaining people, be it in the sauna or on his pontoon, with a joke, story or one-liner. Visitation: 10:30 until the 12 Noon service on Friday, Oct. 21 at the Brule Barn event center in Brule with luncheon to follow.