Vets4Veterans founder mourned Megan and Tom Hilzendeger
PALMDALE — Tom Hilzendeger, the Vietnam War veteran who took the word “altruism” and turned it into a rallying cry, founding the nonprofit support group Vets4Veterans, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 70.
On hearing the announcement of Hilzendeger’s death, tributes, official and unofficial, poured in on social media. They came from city and state officials across the Antelope Valley, friends, and mostly from the veterans that he supported with the efforts of his nonprofit group, which grew from a car show 10 years ago, to a force for good in the Antelope Valley.
“He fought so very hard to beat this,” Megan Hilzendeger,
his surviving spouse of 39 years said in a statement. “He truly knew that you loved him. The kids and I were all with him when he went home to our Lord. He was so very grateful to each and every one of you.”
Tom Hilzendeger wasn’t old enough to drink a beer legally when he served in a combat engineer unit that was attached to the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam.
He was honored earlier this year as Palmdale’s Veteran of the Year and received similar honors in 2019 from state Sen. Scott Wilk as 21st District Veteran of the Year. On Lancaster’s
BLVD, Tom Hilzendeger was honored with a banner as a Hometown Hero for Lancaster.
“We were like brothers,” Jack Woolbert, the Navy veteran of Vietnam who succeeded Hilzendeger as president of Vets4Veterans, said earlier this year. “I am going to miss him.”
John Parsamyan, owner of Armed Services Auto Body in Palmdale, an Army veteran of Afghanistan, recently became Vets4Veterans vice president and said, “Whoever brushed shoulders or high-fived elbows with Tom would be considered a blessed person, as
Tom has a beautiful outlook on life and especially veterans.”
As recently as Memorial Day, Tom Hilzendeger joined Palmdale Mayor Steve Hofbauer, Wilk and Assemblyman Tom Lackey on stage at Poncitlan Square, for socially distanced observances on the holiday.
Two days earlier, with his wife Megan, he attended a food distribution for veterans in need. It garnered support from Palmdale city leaders, American Legion Riders, Patriot Guard, Blue Star Mothers, Coffee4Vets and other veterans support groups across the Valley.
“Sometimes you are just lucky enough to be in the company of greatness,” Palmdale City Manager J.J. Murphy, an Air Force veteran who deployed in the Global War on Terror, said. “I will always remember Tom’s unwavering dedication to veterans and it will inspire me.”
Vets4Veterans began in 2010 with a small classic car show hosted in the VA Veterans Center in Palmdale to raise some money for veterans causes, recalled Gerry Rice, a Vietnam combat veteran who ran a group therapy session for veterans with PTSD.
“We talked about altruism and Tom picked it up and ran with it,” Rice recalled. “The idea is that we help ourselves heal by helping others.”
The car show raised about $1,700, but the group aspired to higher goals and purpose. In the decade since, the organization has underwritten tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships for veterans attending Antelope Valley College and provided even more in resources for needy and homeless veterans, ranging from groceries, to housing and appliances.
In 2018, the group opened Operation Restart in Lancaster, a transitional home to assist a veteran family with temporary housing while the veteran transitions to civilian employment.
“I am so sorry,” Lancaster businessman Barry White said. “He was just in my store to raise money for veterans.”
Memorial plans are pending, with Tom Hilzendeger’s interment planned for Riverside National Cemetery, but no date has been set, Megan Hilzendeger said.
“We are not sure yet about how to make plans for a larger memorial,” she said, owing to restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.