Scottsbluff Star Hearld Scottsbluff, NE 24 Aug 2007 MINATARE - Thomas C. Meier, 71, of Minatare, died Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007 at Regional West Medical Center. His funeral services will be held at 10 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 25, in the Salem Congregational Church Chapel in Scottsbluff, with Pastor Dale H. Brown officiating. Interment will follow at the Fairview Cemetery in Scottsbluff. Memorials in his name may be made to the Salem Congregational Church or to the Panhandle Humane Society. Friends who wish may call at the Jolliffe Funeral Home Thursday from Noon to 7 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday at the church prior to the funeral service. Condolences may be left at www.jolliffefuneralhome.com and will be forwarded to the family. Thomas Carl Meier was born June 8, 1936, in Minatare to Carl O. and Freda (Seckinger) Meier. He grew up and attended Minatare area schools and graduated from Minatare High School with the class of 1956. He married Margie Martin May 17, 1959, in Rapid City, S.D. He farmed north of Minatare for over forty years and during that time won the High Ten Beet Grower Award from Great Western Sugar Company many times. After retiring from farming, Tom worked as a federal crop insurance adjustor for ten years and then adjusted for private insurance companies before ill health forced his retirement in early 2007. Tom was an avid collector of vintage tractors which he enjoyed restoring and taking to tractor pulls in the area, an activity in which he had won numerous awards and trophies. He was a lifelong member of Salem Congregational Church, was a member of the Elks Lodge, the Eagles Lodge, the Farm and Ranch Museum and was a member of both the Platte Valley Tractor Pullers and the National Antique Tractor Pullers Association. Survivors include his wife, Margie of Minatare; daughters, Brenda Meier (Bob) Brown of Copperas Cove, Texas, and Terri Meier (Scott Taylor) of Denver; sisters, Jerrilyn (Wendell) Werner of Green Valley, Ariz. and Carol Meier Bridge of Minatare; grandchildren, Brandy Brown and Brent Brown, both of Copperas Cove, Texas and Phillip Meier-Taylor of Arvada, Colo., and numerous nieces and nephews. His parents preceded him in death.