My friend Tom Piazza has passed

By Kamran Nayeri, Febraury 23, 2024

Tom Piazza with his grand daughter

Yesterday, Mary Crosby sent me an email with a terrible news: Tom Piazza, her husband for over five decades and my colleague at Survey Research Center (SRC) in the University of California in Berkeley, had died of kidney failure.

My heart sank with sadness. Tom was the opposite of sadness, a jolly good fellow, who was among the few of my coworkers I enjoyed a conversation over a cup of cappuccino at Caffe Strada where we took our break. 

Tom was the statistician at the Survey Center specializing in sampling techniques. He had attended St. John’s University in Minneapolis and took a job at the Survery Research Center in the early 1970s. He was several years older than me, but I don't kmow how many. But Tom as the Sinatra song has it was always young at heart.  As long as I knew Tom when he was working it was part time. It was not that there was no demand for his talent but because he loved to travel. Every time he was gone for an extended period of time it turned out it was most likely he was in Italy visiting paternal family or in Finland where her mother's relative lived.

Tom originally wanted to go to a monastery to become a monk, Instead, he met Mary Crosby in Florida and the two got married. Tom became a statistician instead. But he pursued an interest in the history of the Bible and early Christianity and liked to attend annual research conference about such topics. 

In 2003, while at Survey Research Center, I met a beautiful feral cat in the parking lot with whom I develop a lifetime friendship. I called her Mooshi and for three years every day I would go to work (Christmas included) to see and feed Mooshi.  My devotion to Mooshi raised some eyebrows at work. But Tom understood and supported me in caring for Mooshi. 

In 2006 my funding for research at Survey Research Center dried up and I relocated to the University of California Office of the President. I was able to catch and take Mooshi home to my house in Montclair, Oakland. By 2009, after a mass layoff of UC Office of the President, I decided after 30 years in the academia I have had enough! I retired and with Mooshi moved to La Casa de Los Gatos outside of Sebastopol, California, where I still live. 

Tom and I continued to meet either in Berkeley as he was still working part time or later in San Rafael. We discussed his travels, my cats, and some politics including Cuba which he had visited. 

Tom and I shared friends, Angela Greco in Italy and Rosa Jimenez in Havana, Cuba. When Tom went to Italy sometimes he managed to visit Angela and when I went to Cuba I tried to meet Rosa and take greetings from Tom and Mary. 

In more recent years, Tom had become a vegetarian due to problems with his kidneys. I have been a vegan for many years. So we shared dishes at lunch. In the past two years, Tom did not show an interest to continue our lunch outings. I do know why. However, we kept in touch via Facebook and sometimes he expressed an interest in the photos I took and posted. He also showed and interest in my book The Cat Man of Daby Road (2022).  

Tom and Mary were devoted grabdparents and spend a day every week to help care for them until they grew older and began going to school.  Tom wanted to get a copy of my book on cats for his grand daughters, but I warned him it is not all sweet kitty stories. I do ot know if he actually read the book or shared it with them. 

Among my Survey Research colleagues, Tom was especial. I am grateful for his friendship. I will miss Tom.