Obituary of Thomas A Skrobala

Thomas A. Skrobala, 59, died suddenly on January 13, 2017. He was born in Rockville Centre, New York, to Joan Meeker Skrobala and Thomas A. Skrobala. He grew up in Ramsey, New Jersey, and attended Saint Joseph Regional High School. He then attended Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon University. Tom was a senior software developer at Nokia (formerly Lucent Technologies), where he was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff. Over the course of his career, he worked on many data and optical networking products. He was one of the founding developers of Nokia's flagship optical product, which has more than 600 customers deployed in more than 100 countries. He was known by his colleagues as a meticulous developer, as well as a kind and sharing person. He enjoyed teaching developers and was a favorite mentor for new engineers. A shy and quiet person, Tom also had an unexpected sense of humor. He was particularly adept at puns and other wordplay and was a master of the "dad joke." He was an accomplished and prolific photographer. He loved music and movies of many genres. Most of all, Tom was an unfailingly gentle, patient, and generous person who accumulated—and kept—friends from all phases of his life. He was a wonderful son, brother, husband, and father. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Vorsanger; his children, Jaime, Anna, and Daniel; his parents; five siblings and their spouses; and many nieces and nephews. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, January 17, 2017, at Gallaway and Crane Funeral Home, 101 S. Finley Ave, Basking Ridge, from 2:00–4:00pm and 6:00–8:00pm. A funeral mass will be held on Wednesday, January 18, 2017, at 10:00 at The Church of St. James, 184 S. Finley Ave, Basking Ridge, NJ. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the March of Dimes, National Down Syndrome Congress, or Habitat for Humanity.