Tom was born August 12, 1923, in Theodore, Mobile County, Alabama to Frank Wilmoth Breitling and Goldie Farris Breitling, deceased. He married Mary Alice Clark of Madison, Mississippi on August 9, 1944 in Forestville, Maryland. Mary Alice died in March 2020.
He had one brother, Frank Wilmoth Breitling, Jr. who preceded him in death, and one sister, Barbara Breitling Brinson who lives in Georgia.
Tom and Mary Alice had five children: Donna Kathryn Breitling Lauderdale of Manassas, Virginia, Thomas Otto Breitling, Jr. of Reno, Nevada, Mary Claudia Breitling Mellor of San Jose, California, Robert Anthony Breitling of Salt Lake City, Utah, and James Richard Breitling of Reno, Nevada.
Tom was educated in Mobile County Public Schools and earned Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Alabama and an MBA degree at University of Utah.
In his quest to always provide for his family and enjoy his engineering work, he spent years in Honduras on civil engineering and did jobs in Panama and Peru on mineral prospecting and exploration. After years of work in mineral plant design at Stearns-Roger Corp., Climax Molybdenum Company, Kennecott Copper Corporation, EIMCO, and Newbery Engineering Corp., he began facilities engineering for Hercules Aerospace Company, from which he retired in 1990.
He and Mary Alice moved the family to Salt Lake County in June 1969 and have remained.
During World War II Tom served in the Army Corps of Engineers in the US., China, and India and was discharged as a First Lieutenant in June 1946.
Tom joined American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME) in 1960 in Denver. He served on the board of the Colorado Section of AIME and, in addition to working through all the Chairs of the Institute's Mineral Processing Division, served two years on the national Board of Directors of the Institute's Society of Mining Engineers. He was instrumental in the conversion of the Institute's Intermountain Subsection of the Colorado Section to Intermountain Section status and aided in founding the Vail (Colorado) annual summer conference.
He attended the Latin Catholic Mass at Our Lady of Fatima Mission in West Valley City.
Tom is survived by all his children, 10 grandchildren, 28 great grandchildren, and his sister Barbara Breitling Brinson. The grandchildren are Claire Gardner, Allison Pafford, Lawrence Lauderdale, Bryan Mellor, Jeffry Mellor, Alicia Mellor, Melissa Cable, Marie Delaney, Tina Rawley, and Clinton Breitling.
Interment will be at Wasatch Lawn Mortuary, 340 l South Highland Drive, Salt Lake City.
