Tom De Puy
Valley Realtor
and
Community Leader
July 26, 1921
September 8, 2007
On September 8th, 2007, life long San Fernando Valley resident Thomas DePuy died in West Hills, California. One-time Director and member of the San Fernando Board of Realtors, Tom loved the Valley and had visited and studied nearly every neighborhood from Glendale to Calabasas.
Thomas DePuy was born on the south side of the city of Chicago on July 26, 1921, and lived there until his high school graduation. He served as a corporal in the United States Army Air Corps (now the Air Force) during the Second World War. Tom used the G.I. Bill to attend college in Florida, after his military service.
Before Tom DePuy came to the San Fernando Valley in 1957, he lived in Hawaii, where he developed a deep love of boats and the ocean. Sailing became a lifetime passion. His interest in boats led him to join the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, in which he was involved in sea rescue and search operations. He volunteered his boat often for Coast Guard functions. He devised his own boat transport carrier. Tom served the Coast Guard Auxiliary as Flotilla 49's public relations officer, to attract people to the unit's boating and safety classes.
During Tom Depuy's 45 years of working as a real estate broker in the Valley, he developed an intense belief in neighborhood power and responsibility. "A city is only as good as its neighborhoods," he said. One of his last activities, prior to being struck down by Parkinson's disease, was to spearhead neighborhood street repaving. He and his wife Virginia operated DePuy Realty in the Valley.
Tom Depuy worked for over four decades to make the San Fernando Valley a better place in which to live, go to school and participate in the American dream. He believed that home ownership was essential to community success. He practiced life as an adventure. He made our city a better place in which to live.
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