Family recalls prof’s caring gestures, love of teaching

I worried about Tom, when he first got his job as an Assistant Professor at Michigan State, because he was lousy at self-promotion. I knew he would do good work, work with a moral conscience that would make our world better, but he seemed to lack the ability to draw attention to himself in the ways that would help him gain tenure. Other professors, you worry they will put their name first on a paper written by one of their students. With Tom, it was the opposite. He always paid attention to the needs of others before his own. You never had to ask about Tom’s values. All you had to do was watch him, and learn from his quiet example. —Dave Riley, Rothermel-Bascom Professor of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison—

I took FCE 211 back in 2000 and I remember Dr. Luster as being such a warm and caring person and a wonderful teacher. I am so sad to hear about his death :(

Dr. Tom Luster will be dearly missed. He was one of the best professors I had through my 25 years of education, not to mention a good person. May he be in Heaven with our dear God.

Dr. Luster was the best professors I have had in my 5 years here at MSU. I am currently in one of his lectures and enjoy it very much. I will miss him greatly. He was always willing to help and had very interesting stories to tell!!! He always made us laugh. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Over the last 12 years, my wife and I have had the true pleasure of spending each Christmas with Tom and his wonderful wife, Carol, and their two fabulous kids, Anna and Ben. It is hard to imagine a more wonderful family. All of the comments above are true…Tom was humble, funny and will be missed. We will see him again in heaven.

Rick and Sara Dinsmore

Dr. Luster once shared with me a quote from the late Urie Bronfenbrenner that I have kept in my mind, and near my desk, ever since I began teaching: “The greatest gift one can give to the young is to enable them to deal critically and creatively with the new answers, and the new questions, that the future brings.” Dr. Luster brought life and substance to Bronfenbrenner’s words. Through his teaching, he encouraged me to ponder the power of the relationship between teacher and student and challenged me to believe in the resilency of children and young adults when a strong mentor is available. At the end of the day, Dr. Luster contributes to my understanding of the capability of an effective teacher who is compassionate about his/her students and values the development of critical thinking skills.

Tom was a great friend, a great colleague, and a great human being. He was warm, welcoming, funny (funniest holiday letters ever!), smart, caring, and conscientious. I feel lucky to have known him.

Tom always made me feel welcome in his home. The article does an amazing job of capturing his love for his friends and family as well as each and everyone of his students. I will miss Tom when I go to visit my “East Lansing home”. My thoughts and prayers are with Carol, Anna and Ben along with everyone else who will miss Tom

Tom was always only a phone call away.I’ve known Tom and his wonderful family and extended family since he came to MSU. Over the many years, dinners and many beers I have never heard him utter an unkind word about anyone. Tom posed an excellent model of teaching for his students and an excellent model of support for his friends. Thanks Tom.

With great sadness, I have heard from many colleagues at MSU about Tom’s passing. He was a gracious and thoughtful colleague during the 3 years I spent in FCS as a colleague. We shared a connection with Iowa, he having lived in northeast Iowa as a child and I having worked there prior to my time at MSU. Tom will be missed by many lives that touched him.

We have had the pleasure of being touched by the friendship and generosity of Carol and Tom in the last couple of years. Our son became close friends with Anna when he was at MSU. Being from Louisville, KY, Carol and Tom became “surrogate parents” to Jonathan, and I now realize that that is just second nature for them. We loved hosting them when Ben participated in the Iron Man competition last Labor Day weekend and they generously hosted us and all 3 of our adult children when we returned to MSU for our most recent annual football weekend. Our hearts are breaking for Carol, Anna, and Ben, but the for the short time we knew Tom and learning more about him in these last few days, it sounds like there was not a life better lived. Carol, Anna, Ben, all of Tom’s family, and all who will miss him, you are in our thoughts and prayers.

When I first got into this country, not knowing anyboy, I Met Tom Luster’s family as my mentor first in which family and I have developed relation further then just him being my mento. And this kind of relation have never happened to me since I was seperated by the war from my own family when I was only nine years old. Luster and family treated me as their own son. Being from the countries that have been in the war for decades, Sudanese that are brought into the United States are more like, particulerly me, because of Tom Luster I am to called University graduate of which this has never being my dream. When I completed high school in Kakuma Refugee camp, to me that is the end of the road for my education. Today, losing him does not only left wound in the heart of Ann, Ben and Carol but also individuals like me that come into this country as anything but now is able to abtian the most important paper that has never been a dream of my own. Being a Lost Boy to others to him and family I AM NOT BUT ONE OF THE FAMILY.
Sisimay

I met Tom & Carol a couple of years when I found myself involved with Journey of Hope. They welcomed me into their home and made me feel like I had known them for years. Tom was a very soft spoken man but very well liked and respected. Carol I will keep you in my prayers.

Tom was my first graduate TA at Cornell when I was beginning there as a new Assistant Professor in Human Development and Family Studies. He and Carol quickly became among my closest friends. Tom is one of the finest human beings I’ve ever known. My thoughts are with Carol, Anna, and Ben. All of us will miss Tom a great deal.

I am so very sad to hear this horrible news. My office was a few doors down from Tom’s for eight years. I have a hard time with the flatness of words in expressing my agreement with the things that I have read posted here. Whenever I had a question, or needed an opinion or a reality check – be it a statistics problem, a conceptual issue, or even how to deal with a student’s problem – Tom was the first person I would go to. I had nothing but trust that I would get sound information or advice. Tom had a remarkably rare combination of being very intelligent and insightful without any self-aggrandizement. He was kind, reliable, and honest. He was the sort of academic that you are supposed to be: a diligent scholar, a dedicated teacher, a trusted colleague. He was a mentor and a friend. Tom was always willing to share materials, credit, and so on. He just wanted knowledge to be used and disseminated. He really did make the world a better place. He has been a remarkable role model for me and for so many. My thoughts and prayers are with Carol and all of Tom’s family and friends.

Dr. Luster was my advisor when I worked on my Ph.D degree from 1993-1998. Then, I went back to Taiwan and started to teach at a University. After I become an advisor myself, I realize how hart it is to mentor a student for his/her thesis. Dr. Luster put a lot effort on helping me—a foreign student who worked on her dissertation in her second language. He was very supportive and always responded to my questions as soon as he can. I have invited Dr. Luster to Taiwan twice for a conference as a keynote, and joint-teaching for a class. However, he did not accept the invitations because he said that he had MSU students and classes to take care. I could tell how he was devoted to his MSU students. Dr. Luster will always be my role model, and I will always remember him.

Nancy and I met Tom and Carol in 1985 when our apartments were across the hall from each other and we were all new to Lansing. We became instant friends, a friendship that led us to buy houses in the same neighborhood, a block away from each other, and that endured when they moved to East Lansing. Even though the visits became infrequent, we usually got together in December to celebrate birthdays, sing carols (and share some micro brews). Our trip to Iowa in 1993 to visit them is one of our family’s fondest memories. Tom’s goodness, intellect and humility shone through in his work and the support he provided to so many people and our world will miss his gentle soul. He was a good man and a good friend. Carol and Anna and Ben, Ernie and Alice, and Boo and Ruth, please take comfort and draw strength from the many friends who share your love for Tom.

I first met Tom when he lived across the hall from me in the dorms in Iowa City in the fall of 1973. The next semester I moved in with him. For the ’74-‘75 year I bought a large house trailer and persuaded he and one of his Lansing, Iowa friends to move into it with me. Then he graduated and went to a high school teaching job.
He was a gentle closet radical. He often said that if he didn’t get fired from his first job within two years that he would consider himself a failure. Sure enough he was let go after two years for being too “familiar” with his students—the very trait that seems to have endeared him to his college students and colleagues.
I left the state in 1979 and I haven’t seen him since, but I’ve kept in touch with several of his hometown friends who became lifelong friends of mine. I nearly saw him again in a reunion they held out west two years ago.
Reflecting on those college times, I realize that he probably had as much influence as anyone on my choice to get a teaching certificate, although he never suggested that I do so. It was just his example.
I moved back to Iowa in 2007, and I’ve been hoping that I’d see him up there beside the Mississippi and get a chance to talk about child development issues.
I don’t have any trouble imagining that he became the person described in these comments. I’m glad to know that he was, and I’m sorry that he’s gone.

More than 25 years ago, I was in Tom’s cohort at Cornell and much later we found ourselves colleagues in the same department. He was the same caring, kind, humble and hardworking person he had always been. He was the most dependable person I’ve known and in many circumstances over the last 10 years I have found myself depending upon that steadiness. I thank Tom for his inclusivenss, patience, and support over the years and the work that we did on a longstanding project, at his invitation. I thank him for being the kind of person around which change can take place, around which fairness rules the day, as well as respect. I thank Tom for road trips to conferences that included lots of chocolate! To his wife Carol, I want to share that Tom once told me on your anniversary, as you were on your way to pick up from the office, “Marrying Carol was the best decision I ever made.” He lived his life in such a way where we could all take a few lessons about integrating you ideals into everything you do and balancing family/friends. There is a gapping hole everywhere is once stood. We’ll endeavor to fill it with his legacy and memories.

I expressed my heartfelt condolences to the family of Professor Tom Luster who has recently passed away in untimely fashion. I’m deeply saddened by the tragedy that has befallen the family of Professor Tom Luster, the Spartan community and those of us Sudanese immigrants who have come to know him over the course of the years. I have known Professor Luster as a mentor, an educator as well as a family friend who has been very instrumental in my educational success with Michigan State ranging from helping me with computer problems to being a referee for my employment success. Luster and his wife Carol have always extended their hands to those of us who needed their help and I’m truly indebted for their unconditional and sacrificial love for fellow human beings. I pray that may the Almighty God rest his soul in peace and have His blessings on the family during this moment of hardship.