Tom Tobrook’s wife, Mary, was a serving officer in the US Navy with 24years’ service, of which he is extremely proud. She was a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) and the first Women Officer to be permanently forward deployed in a war zone when she saw active service in the Gulf War.

Appropriately they were married at sea by the Captain of the Crown Princess on an extended Baltic cruise.

Mary’s family is from Hawaii of Madeiran and Azores ancestry. She is a former Berkeley scholar and has a Doctorate in Organisation and Management.

Tobrook and his young family live in North Michigan where they enjoy a lakeside and winter wonderland lifestyle above the 45^th Parallel.

They retain a small cottage in the UK. Mary is a self-confessed Anglophile being a particular devotee of Jane Austen. By some irony, the couple enjoyed an extended 5 year stay living in the former house of Jane Austen’s brother. Charles Austen was a Royal Navy Captain and his large 1840’s house with its walled garden overlooked the Solent.