Born in Texas, Tom has lived in Minnesota since 1979, where he served as the Minnesota State Demographer. Tom received his PhD in Economics specializing in Economic Demography from The Pennsylvania State University. Though Tom spent his career immersed in statistics and numbers, he has written poetry since high school. "And The Rough Places", published April 2015, is his second book of poetry. He also wrote "Piko, The Dog With No Tail", a chilldren's book, with illustrator Larry Underkoffler, published 2014.