Thomas Nickolas Kamp

Thomas N. Kamp, who practiced law for 40 years with Lane & Waterman in Davenport, died peacefully on Monday morning, May 11, after an extended illness. He was 88 and had resided in LeClaire since 1999. In addition to being a partner at Lane & Waterman, he served as President of the Iowa State Bar Association in 1994-95, as a Fellow in both the American College and the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers, as chair of the Iowa Association of Workers Compensation Lawyers, and as an officer in the United States Navy and Naval Reserves from 1960-69. Funeral services will be held at Our Lady of the River parish in LeClaire, at 12 noon on Tuesday, May 19. Visitation will be at the church from 10AM to 12 noon. Interment will be at Rock Island National Cemetery on Arsenal Island, with military honors conducted by American Legion Post 26. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Tom’s name to the Le Claire Community Library, the Iowa Law School Foundation, the Notre Dame Fund for Scholarships, or to a charity of the donor’s choosing.

Thomas Nickolas Kamp was born April 13, 1938 in Rock Rapids IA, the oldest son and second of four children of Nic W. Kamp and Josephine M. Ruppert. His father owned several small businesses in Rock Rapids, LeMars, and Sibley: a small chain of filling stations, a bar in LeMars (with an apartment for the family above), and then in 1948 purchased the Manhattan Beach Resort on West Lake Okoboji. From the age of 10, Tom did a man’s work that kept the resort running — installing docks, maintaining the cottages, beach, and machinery, and developing highly specialized pest control techniques. From this experience he developed an immense capacity for hard work and a host of practical home maintenance skills, as well as a lifelong love for automobiles and the buying and selling of them; he is believed to have traded well over a hundred autos in his lifetime, owning some for only a few weeks — “just for the experience” and for the fun of the negotiation. He purchased his first car for $50, a 1929 Ford Model A, at the age of 14. His next car was a black 1948 Mercury, which he bought at age 16 and maintained so assiduously that he quickly waxed the paint off it. As an adult, he collected and maintained antique cars including several Model A Fords, and a special favorite, a yellow 1948 Willys Jeepster.

Tom’s favorite sports were football and bicycling. In 1955 at the beginning of his senior year in high school, he asked his parents for permission to attend his senior year at Gehlen High School in LeMars (an hour away), as they had a better football team. Though living at Okoboji, the family still owned the apartment in LeMars, and the young Tom Kamp spent his senior year of high school living on his own, cultivating his own independence and self-sufficiency, if not his housekeeping skills. As an adult, he was an avid college football fan, a longtime season ticket-holder for University of Iowa football games, and rooted for the team in all cases — except on the rare occasions when they played head-to-head against Notre Dame. He took up bicycling in 1982, and over the next few decades participated in many organized rides, including RAGBRAI, which he completed 13 times.

He attended Notre Dame University on an ROTC scholarship, and sang in the Notre Dame Glee Club. Choral singing was another of his signal pastimes and a source of respite and sustenance throughout his life; he was a longtime member of the Chordbusters Barbershop Chorus in Davenport, and served as the chapter president in 1978.

After graduating from Notre Dame with a B.B.A. in 1960, he was commissioned Ensign in the Navy, serving mostly in Japan with Tactical Air Control Squadron 11 based out of San Diego. After 26 months on active duty, he served in various naval reserve units, and attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander before retiring from the Navy in November 1969.

Mr. Kamp entered the University of Iowa Law School in the fall of 1962 and graduated Order of the Coif in 1965. While in law school, he met Linda Jeanne Gates of Marengo; they were married at Our Lady of Victory church in Davenport on June 4, 1966.

He joined Lane & Waterman as a special partner in July 1965, and was admitted as a general partner in February 1970. For about a decade, he was a busy civil defense attorney, the hallmarks of his practice being an intense dedication to research and extremely effective skills as negotiator and litigator. Beginning in the late 1970s he assumed the business management of the firm. He retired from active practice in 2000 but continued “of counsel” until about a year ago.

Tom’s Okoboji upbringing instilled a love of living on the water. During his 35 years in Davenport he never lived more than 2 blocks from the Mississippi, and upon his retirement he settled permanently on the riverbank in LeClaire. He owned a motorboat for most of his adult life and would often escape the office on summer afternoons to “steal a day” on the river, boating and waterskiing.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by: three children, sons Gates Thomas (Angel Matias) of Davenport, David Kamp (Ann) of Argo, and daughter Kathryn Kamp (Guillermo Delgado) of Forest Park IL; two grandchildren, Nick W. Kamp of Iowa City and Elizabeth M. Kamp of Quincy IL; and the family’s foreign exchange daughter, Nina Beck Bladel (Heikko) of Landau, Germany. He is also survived by two sisters, Mary Jo Bowers (Norman) of Skokie IL; Susan Ann Kamp of Evanston IL; a brother, John F. Kamp of Naples FL; and nine nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents;  two nephews, James Bowton and Michael Bowers; and his sister-in-law Sue Hoyt Kamp, who died May 5 in Naples.