Tom Pfaeffle, a well respected engineer, professor at the Seattle Institute of Art, Father, Friend, and Husband was shot to death on the night of Friday, July 17th. While on a camping vacation with his family in Eastern Washington, Tom was trying to enter what he believed was his hotel room and unknowingly began to jostle the door handle when he was suddenly shot twice through the hotel door. Tom fought valiantly for his life with his wife Val for two more hours until the EMS arrived.
Finding out this news from an old Suburban Home employee, Hannah Dowd who also happened to be one of Tom’s students, left me speechless. I am on the brink of tears imagining two daughters without a father because of such a reckless situation. Tom will not soon be forgotten as he has done so much for Seattle music. He helped finance Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground’s live at Pretty Parlor DVD, mixed and mastered Kay Kay’s brilliant self-titled album, and my wife and I had the great opportunity of hanging out with Tom when we flew out to Seattle for Kay Kay’s album release show. Tom was a master of his craft. He was a teacher to those around him. He inspired so many people to play and record music. I still can’t believe something so terrible could happen to someone who gave so much.
In addition to his work with Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, Tom Pfaeffle worked with acts from all walks of life from Nirvana to Wild Orchid Children to Lizzie Huffman to The Black Crowes to Gatsbys American Dream and so many others. Tom, you will be missed my friend.
The day after the horrific incident, Kay Kay were scheduled to perform live on KEXP and they pulled off a 4 song performance dedicated to Tom Pfaeffle. You can listen to the live recording by going to KEXP’s stream archive and entering the date (Sat. Jul. 18, 2009) and the time (6pm) of the performance. You will be given a few choices of the type of stream you want to select and you will begin hearing the radio show with Kay Kay’s in session performance.
Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground also had a really nice dedication to Tom on their Myspace blog. You can find it here. There will be a few benefit shows in Tom’s honor. When we get the details, we will let you all know. This is such a terrible situation.
