Mick, Tom was an interesting man in many respects. He had a great knowledge of Irish traditional music and the pipes in particular (and I apologize to others here for the little bit of thread drift). He was a border gaurd in Blaine Washington when I first met him at the Ceoltis in Vancouver. I hired him to play at my wedding ceremony and he piped my wife and I out of the church. Tom and I remained friends for many years and I would regularly visit him and learn from him. I unfortunately did not have the required patience for the pipes which I regret. I did a painting of my Dad playing a set of Tom's pipes one time and he loved it so much that he asked if I would accept a concert flute in exchange for the painting. The flute as it turned out was much, much more valuable than the painting, but that was Tom. Last I heard he was living in Maryland. An interesting link here on Taylor pipes.