Thomas C. Westcott

Thomas is survived by his children Marla Westcott of Rockledge, Mark Westcott, Paula Haderle of Melbourne and Paul Westcott of Vero Beach. He has 9 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife Violet Westcott, his siblings Margaret Burns, Bill Westcott, Roy Westcott, Raymond Westcott, June Ward, Gale Westcott and Noel Westcott. Surviving siblings are Arlene Wren and Linda Hooper.

Thomas was born on June 26th, 1934, in White Bluff, Tennessee to Minerva Estell and Pleasant Leonidas. He entered the Air Force April 2nd, 1953, and was stationed in Wichita, Kansas . He then married Violet Ruth Lile on August 27th, 1954. They lived in Wichita Kansas for 7 years and had their first two children, then went to Columbus Ohio for 3 years where they had a set of twins. After that he was off to Smyrna, Tennessee. During the time in Smyrna, he had a 1-year isolated tour in the Philippines with a 90 day stay in Saigon Vietnam. In 1968 the family moved to Satellite Beach at Thomas was stationed at Patrick Air Force Base. At the end of the Apollo Program he transferred to Altus, Oklahoma on March 31st, 1974, where he stayed until he retired on June 30th, 1976. He then returned to Satellite Beach. He attended Brevard Community College and received an associate’s degree in general education. On May 29th, 1979, he joined the Shuttle program, working for Rockwell, Lockheed and United Space Alliance. Thomas worked on the program as an Inspector, for landing/recovery at Edwards AFB, California, White Sands, New Mexico and Kennedy Space Center Florida. He assisted in validating DOD payload installation, developing new ways to take closeout photographs when the Shuttle was at the Pad in the vertical configuration and at one time held the record for the number of hours in a SCAPE suit. In 1986, Thomas received an award from the American Society of Quality Control as Inspector of the year, and Employee of the Year from Lockheed. This was for identifying an anomaly in the AFT Compartment of Atlantis and preventing a delay in the launch on November 26, 1985. He worked on the program until he retired on March 3rd, 2000.

His children and grandchildren always knew him as grandpa, who would do whatever it took to help them with any goal they had in life.

Thomas loved working with horses as his daughter’s barn, growing orchids, and taught everyone how to work on cars due to his love of just fixing anything he could. And most of all… The FLORIDA GATORS… He once said, “he would stop and watch kids in Gator shirts shooting marbles”. But what he was known the most for was his love of his family.

The funeral is scheduled for Tuesday July 28th, viewing at 10:00 with services at 11:00. A reception will be held at the POW/MIA Park, 5995 N. US Highway 1, Melbourne, Florida.