Lee-Toma.net

Do you really want to find out more about me? Haven't you got something better to do?!?

When I was very little, my mother would dress me up in funny-looking outfits. I have to think it was because she was German. 'Course, I've never seen pictures of little German kids in such odd outfits, so maybe she was just weird, God bless her soul. Anyway, I've mostly recovered from that early trauma.

After she died, three families were kind enough to help out as foster families until my father could get back on his feet. My thanks to the Worths, Jean Grosbach and the Holladays, and another local family who I unfortunately don't remember.

Inge and Shiki - August 1970

Dad met Anne in '75 when they were neighbors in Boston. Eventually they married and settled our new family in suburban Milton, Mass.

My four brothers and sisters and I grew up in Milton, a pleasant town south of Boston.

Diana is in college, attending the Art Institute of Boston. Charles is in the Army, currently stationed in Afghanistan. Sam lives nearby in Quincy and works in Cambridge, and Keiko (Katie) has been living and working in Japan since 2001.

I once asked mom if she had intended to name her kids 'Charles and Diana'. She looked startled and said she hadn't realized that...

Jean Grosbach and Anne Todd-Toma - July 1989

Mom and Dad have both since passed away, so now I live in the family house with Diana and Grandma.

Anyway, enough about them... This website is all about ME!

As a small child, I loved toy trains, and wanted to be an engineer. After six years of schooling at Tufts and Purdue Universities, I discovered that there is a BIG difference between railroad engineers and other engineers. Ah well.

However, I've found that mechanical engineering is fun in it's own right - Hey, stop laughing. No I'm NOT delusional! I'm serious! I get to build things and then break them. This is good stuff!

For several years I worked for Puritan Bennett in Indianapolis, where we designed and manufactured medical devices to store liquid oxygen and deliver breathable oxygen to respiratory-impaired patients. Our award-winning HELiOS unit was so popular that we more than tripled the projected unit sales in the first year, and won a Medical Design Excellence Award in the process.

I particularly liked that I got to be involved in the product development process from start to finish, including everything from collecting user feedback, developing product specifications, industrial design, systems and component design and integration, coordination of design across three sites, and hand-off to manufacturing.

The company also was kind enough to indulge one of my passions, travel. I had the good fortune to see cool sites from New Hampshire to Oregon while also taking care of business... You can see some of the results of these travels in my photo galleries.

After a corporate consolidation, I packed up my things and moved back east to Boston. Since then, I have been working at a small company called Vision-Sciences, where we develop endoscopes and sterile disposable sheaths to improve clinical efficiency and patient safety.

So, what else is there to say? I like biking, hiking, travel, good food, good company, and sunset walks along the beach - uh-oh, I'm getting all sentimental and sappy... I better stop now. Feel free to contact me if you want to know more.

Regards,
LEE TOMA