Thomas "Tom" L. Bland

Memorial services for Tom Bland, age 83, of Norfolk, Nebraska will be 10:30 a.m. Friday, September 6, 2024, at Christ Lutheran Church in Norfolk. Reverend Michael Moreno will officiate. Inurnment will be in Prospect Hill Cemetery with military honors conducted by the Army National Guard Honor Guard, American Legion Post 16, and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1644.

Visitation with family will be Thursday from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Home for Funerals Chapel, 708 Georgia Avenue, in Norfolk.

Home for Funerals in Norfolk is in charge of arrangements.

Tom died peacefully Thursday, August 29, 2024, at Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk, surrounded by his family.

Thomas Lee Bland was born December 25, 1940, to Carl and Lucille Bland of Battle Creek, Nebraska. Tom grew up on the family farm southwest of Battle Creek with his parents and younger sister Nancy, where he helped with farming and established himself as a champion welder and hog farmer while in high school. After graduating from Battle Creek High School in 1959, Tom worked as a hired hand on local farms. He was drafted into the United States Army, and served mainly at Fort Riley, Kansas from November 7, 1963, to November 6, 1965. After an honorable discharge, Tom returned to Battle Creek where he became a shop foreman at Jessen Manufacturing in April 1966.

On November 5, 1967, Tom married Carol Goetsch of Norfolk at Christ Lutheran Church. Following a honeymoon in California, the couple settled south of Norfolk. Tom and Carol started a landscaping business, Green Thumb Landscaping, in 1976. Green Thumb Landscaping maintained the grounds for commercial accounts that included the Norfolk Goodyear plant (now Continental) and seeded and cared for residential lawns throughout northeast Nebraska. Tom also donated his services and time to care for the grounds at Christ Lutheran Church. Tom ran Green Thumb Landscaping until 2024; it is now run by his son Marty.

Tom was a loving husband to Carol and a devoted, kind, and joyful father to their four children: Michelle, Monica, Marty, and Matt. Tom accompanied his sons to three National FFA Championships in Louisville, Kentucky, and he served as welding instructor for the Norfolk FFA chapter. Tom took his family to visit his daughters in college and later graduate school in Minnesota, Kansas, San Francisco, and Washington DC. Three memorable, recent trips Tom took were to New York City to attend a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman in March 2015, to Kansas City to attend a NASCAR race with his son Matt in October 2016, and to the East Coast to visit his daughters in Charlottesville, Virginia and Washington DC in January 2022. Tom was so proud of his children, and he seized any opportunity to talk about them.

Through his life and his life’s work, Tom came to have a great many friends and acquaintances in northeast Nebraska, and anyone who knew him, knew of his gift for conversation and great sense of humor. He could find the fun in any situation, and he was fond of innocuous pranks, good jokes, country music, coffee, biscuits and gravy, cats, farm machinery, welding, and vehicles ranging from his 1966 Pontiac GTO to his 1960 Willys Jeep to his John Deere Gator. He is beloved by his family and much missed.

Tom is survived by his wife, Carol Bland; his children, Michelle, Monica, Marty, and Matt Bland; sister, Nancy Gross; sisters-in-law, Lynette Pofahl, Karen Goetsch, and Alice Goetsch; brothers-in-law, Louis Pofahl, Eugene Goetsch and Leland Goetsch; nine nephews; and two nieces.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Carl and Lucille Bland; parents-in-law, Karl and Viola Goetsch; brothers-in-law, Arland Gross and Ralph Goetsch; sisters-in-law, Ardyce Goetsch and Marlene Goetsch; nephew, Bruce Goetsch; and his niece, Brenda Goetsch.

Memorials may be made to Battle Creek Parks of Pride Foundation (208 South 6th St., Battle Creek, NE 68715) or Christ Lutheran School.

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