As manager for the WW football team Tom also became part trainer and team doctor as he learned how to apply ankle wraps and butterfly stitches, and learned that BFI powder (still available in some drug stores) would absorb and stop the flow of blood. Ex-marine (I know. There's no such thing.) and football coach John Spezzaferro suggested that Tom become a professional trainer, but instead he opted for the U.S. Air Force. What Bliss did do for C oach Spezz was to join the . . entire football team in signing a letter to the Dayton Daily News supporting him and his coaching style after the paper had printed let­ters critical of his tough practices and conditioning requirements.

An Air Force aptitude test indicated that Tom would make a good engine mechanic, so that's what he did, three months in Korea and 21 months in Japan. Home from Japan, he worked three years as a Montgom­ery County electrical inspector, 23 years for Dayton Power and Light,14 years in outdoor sales for Duellman Electric, and eleven years as a Madison County (London, Ohio) electrical inspector. "I never retired from anything," he says.

Tom was married 55 years (wife Elizabeth passed away about a year ago) has one daughter Marcia, a nurse, and is a long-time mem­ber of the Milton Athletic Club. Whereas his WW career also included being the photographer for the Wright Pilot, and whereas photography has long been his avocation, Mr. Bliss now serves as the official shutterbug for the Wilbur Wright Athletic Hall of Fame Awards Banquets.