In the event that they serve alcohol in Heaven, proper now, Don Tompkins goes round asking, “Present me the courtesy” to have a drink with him. It was Tompkins’ signature line and can seemingly echo for years at Brother Don’s Bar & Grill in Bremerton or tons of of different stomping grounds he roamed in his 88 years.
Tompkins, who by no means knew a stranger; had a smile that would crack the veneer of an individual’s despair as simply as one cracks an egg; served as a mentor and buddy to many; and couldn’t flip down an invite to social gathering or arrange a bunch of fellows to go on {golfing} junkets from Gold Mountain to Myrtle Seashore, South Carolina. He died March 31 of a coronary heart assault.
“I referred to as him the rock star,” stated Gordon Rinke, who, with Bart Bruckman, is now a companion in Brother Don’s, having bought it from Tompkins a number of years in the past.
Golf performed a central a part of Tomkins’ grownup life, however it was a humorous factor. He cherished golf, however golf didn’t like him, and his handicap was having a golf membership in his arms.
Nonetheless, he performed on.
“When he whiffed on his swing, he nonetheless counted that as a stroke,” Rinke stated. “He simply loved {golfing}. He wasn’t superb at it, however he cherished it. All people else would are available with scores within the 80s and 90s, and he would have 128.”
As soon as in Las Vegas, Tompkins turned in a really excessive rating, and the match director was so impressed that he honored Tompkins for being probably the most trustworthy golfer he had met.
Years in the past, Tompkins organized a Brother Don’s golf league that performs each Wednesday at Gold Mountain. It has about 40 members and is predicated on handicaps that rise and drop each week. Jon Jennings, a former co-owner of a beer distributorship, figured he and Tompkins had been neck-in-neck with the very best handicaps.
There are literally thousands of tales that may be informed about Tompkins. A few of them may even be informed in print. However the principle story is a life that began along with his beginning in Orange, New Jersey, in 1934. He moved out west, courtesy of the Military, and was stationed for a great a part of his two years of service at Fort Lawton (now often known as Discovery Park) within the Magnolia district of Seattle.
Tompkins in 1955 enrolled at Western Washington School of Training (now Western Washington College) in Bellingham. He married his spouse, Maryann, on Sept. 15, 1956, in Bellingham, and after receiving his instructor’s diploma from Western, he collected his grasp’s on the College of Northern Colorado.
Tompkins taught particular schooling within the Bremerton Faculty District and have become head of the choice college situated at Lincoln Faculty. In 1978 he switched careers and opened up Brother Don’s on Kitsap Method.
“He thought instructing was no completely different than proudly owning a bar,” says Pat Tompkins, the oldest of 4 sons. “He felt it was just about the identical coping with college students as with bar patrons.”
For a quick time, Tompkins owned the second-coming of Melody Lane in downtown Bremerton. That’s the place Rinke, who had labored for Hilton Resort in Florida, caught up with Tompkins and started working for him. He continued to work for Tompkins at Brother Don’s, and 7 years in the past, he and Geoff Tompkins, the second oldest Tompkins son, bought it. Geoff bought his share of the bar to Bruckman 4 years in the past and retired to the Phoenix space.
Life was meant to be loved and Tompkins adopted that script to the tip. Rinke stated, “He was the type of employer that by no means let work intrude with golf. That was simply his angle.”
Jim Carlson, proprietor of Minder’s Meats in Bremerton, added, “When (Tompkins) laughed, the entire room laughed. He actually, actually loved life.”
Carlson recollects the time Tompkins was with a bunch from Bremerton that went to a golf match in Bozeman, Montana. It was the yr Bobby Knight was the visitor speaker, and Jim Wenzl introduced alongside the ebook “A Season on the Brink,” written by John Feinstein. The ebook doesn’t paint a reasonably image of Knight’s teaching strategies, and as Wenzl approached Knight, he requested the Corridor of Fame coach if he would signal the ebook.
You would possibly recall the well-known scene the place an indignant Knight threw a chair throughout the basketball ground throughout a sport. Effectively, Knight stated, “I gained’t signal this blankly-blank ebook” and tossed it 30 toes.
Wenzl was shocked. However Tompkins, who had accompanied him as he approached Knight, broke out laughing.
Laughter might be the most effective medication for what ails an individual, and if that holds true, Tompkins used it to carry up for nearly 9 a long time.
Earlier than all of the strict DWI legal guidelines started to indicate up on the books, native taverns had been the headquarters for social networking. Bar homeowners led by Pink Brown of Pop’s Inn and Tompkins and some others fashioned the Kitsap County Bar and Restaurant Affiliation. Tompkins severed as its president for eight years, which was solely proper as a result of he made the rounds to be in contact with different bar homeowners and to supply options if requested what he would do when issues arose.
“He stored in contact with all of the bar homeowners on the town,” Carlson stated. “He was any individual who individuals regarded as much as. He was there to indicate assist.”
Wealthy Peachy, proprietor of A&C Sports activities Bar & Grill in East Bremerton, added, “Brother Don was an inspiration to a whole lot of us. He was our chief again within the day after we first obtained into the enterprise as a younger man and wanted a hand.”
Tompkins was a primary native sponsor of leisure sports activities groups, most of them slowpitch softball. He additionally, with others together with Brown, raised cash for the scoreboard at Pendergast Regional Park. They collected a lot cash the surplus was invested, and the curiosity return every year pays for a Pink Brown Scholarship for a yr at Olympic School for a softball participant. The scholarship is run by the Kitsap Athletic Roundtable.
Native bar homeowners got here up with a wood nickel concept: You bought one for a buck and that might get you 5 schooners of beer.
Tompkins went one step additional. He had the intense concept of placing his place — Brother Don’s — on a enterprise card you can buy for a buck. It labored out nicely, besides if you happen to washed your shirt with two of these enterprise playing cards within the pocket.
“The playing cards turned to mush,” says Jennings. “One in every of them had three beers left on it and the opposite had two or three.”
Jennings pleaded with Tompkins to permit him the good thing about doubt and honor what he stated was left on the playing cards. After some argument, Tompkins supplied a roll of cube to determine the disagreement.
“I misplaced,” says Jennings. “They had been his cube.”
After all, Tompkins had a giant smile on his face.
Tompkins did lose infrequently. He informed Maryann he and a bunch of fellows had been going to Las Vegas to observe the Tremendous Bowl. Maryann, who stayed behind to work Brother Don’s, lastly caught on. When her husband obtained residence, she merely stated, “The Tremendous Bowl wasn’t performed in Las Vegas.”
“Yeah, he can be placed on restriction now and again,” laughed Jennings.
When Don “Homer” Lay Sr., a sports activities and enterprise chief in the neighborhood, died in 2004 of most cancers, he was cremated and his ashes unfold in 2006 at Mesquite, Arizona. That’s as a result of Lay was the organizer for the now semi-annual journeys he and a bunch of fellows made to take pleasure in golf and playing. A ebook could possibly be written on the tales about these journeys, however it’s honest to say most won’t ever see daylight in print.
Tompkins has been cremated, so the query was requested of Geoff what they had been going to do along with his ashes.
“We’ll unfold them at Gold Mountain, Brother Don’s and Mesquite,” Geoff stated, including there could also be different stops for them as nicely. However Mesquite is unquestionably on the agenda, as a result of Tompkins was a daily on the journey.
Earlier than then, tales will circulation like beer on April 23 from midday till closing at an open home at Brother Don’s to have a good time the lifetime of Don Tompkins as his many pals collect for one final sign-off.
“Anyone who got here into Brother Don’s was a buddy,” Jennings stated. “Brother Don was only a nice household man and an necessary determine in your complete neighborhood. Brother Don’s was a bar like ‘Cheers.’ You’d choose on him and he would choose again. I simply cherished the place — small, overcrowded, service was nice, meals was nice, and simply all of that due to Don Tompkins.
“He can be sorely missed for positive.”
Terry Mosher is a longtime Solar sportswriter who writes a daily column on Kitsap sports activities personalities. Contact him at bigmosher@msn.com.
