Tom's cousin posted this on his Facebook page:
I have just learned that my cousin, Tom Birkeland, has died. He was so talented and caring. When we were young we would sit in a tent in the backyard and pretend we were dining at the Space Needle - we couldn't imagine anything fancier than that. 50 years later we did it for real - such a great memory.
His great love was the theater. I remember seeing him perform in A Thousand Clowns at the Tacoma Little Theater when he was only 9. He kept performing there, and lots of different theaters in the Puget Sound area, for the next 60 years.
He will be greatly missed, by many many people.