Thomas John Viitanen

Tuomo Juhani Viitanen was born on December 6, 1946 in the small village of Kihnio, Finland to the late Lauri T. Viitanen, and Kasvi (Viinamaki) Viitanen. The Viitanens owned a thriving farm with livestock, horses, and an orchard until in 1960 they made the journey across the Atlantic, and eventually travel to the destination of Gardner, Massachusetts where the Viitanens left Tuomo in the care of his cousin, Delia Reitan while they travel led back to Finland to settle their affairs for the next two years. Tuomo got picked on because he couldn’t speak English, and was a slight frame, but soon realized he was a fast runner. He gained high school notoriety by becoming Worcester County Champion in the long jump and being featured in local newspapers as an accomplished sprinter. Tuomo graduated from Gardner High School in 1967. He went on to attend Westfield State College and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1970.

As a young adult, Tuomo became “American” and earned his United States citizenship and Americanized his name to Thomas John.

Soon after Tom was naturalized, he drew a top number in the American draft, for the Vietnam war, and promptly went off to basic training, and Fort Polk, Louisiana. That brief era in Tom’s life is filled with stories and acquaintances that lasted his lifetime.

Tom became a licensed Massachusetts teacher, and became employed at Fitchburg High School, and taught sociology, government, and history. He had a part time job after school at Mike’s Driving School. At this time, one of Tom‘s closest friends, Frank Agnelli was a summer Yarmouth police officer. He convinced Tom to pick up and move from the Fitchburg area to Cape Cod to open a business. They floated a few business ideas around, but realized a successful business requires experience in something you already know. Frank knew the rules of the road from being a police officer, and Tom knew the teaching, and eventually they decided to open the driving school. At this very same time Tom met, his future wife, Linda (Aldrich) Haley. He convinced her to also make the move to Cape Cod, which took coercing and convincing and persistence.

They open Grand Prix Driving School on August 10, 1975. After a few months, the partnership dissolved, and Tom became the sole owner and remained so until his passing.

Tom and Linda built a beautiful life together in no small part from the success of the business. In the early years they enjoyed traveling to many driving school conventions, and seminars, where they dove deep into learning how to improve their business, and traveling, and socializing. Anyone who knew Tom knew he loved to work hard, and play harder, and he had many toys, including boats, presumably the first JetSki on Cape Cod, corvettes, motorcycles, and in the later years, an RV, that he enjoyed taking his grandkids around in.

Thomas survived by his wife, Linda (Aldrich), step-son David Haley (Sandra), and daughter Liisa (Alex) Viitanen-Pendleton, 3 granddaughters, Olivia ❤️, Evelyn 💕, and Jennaveeve, as well as three step grandchildren, Nichole (Haley) Miller, Lauren (Haley) Kelly, and Justin Haley, and numerous nieces and nephews and other family and friends.

A celebration of life will be held at Doane Beal and Ames, October 15, 2023. All are welcome to come and celebrate Tom.