Tom was born in Hawaii in 1944 to a Portuguese mother and a farm boy father from Georgia. Growing up barefoot on the beaches of Waikiki was an idyllic beginning followed by a year on the farm where he developed a passion for grits and huge hogs. He grew up in San Diego and attended San Diego State College receiving first his BA and then his MA in sculpture with a master's show featuring among other things, the Bank of America on the back of a pig.