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Tom was born October 31, 1938, in New Haven, Indiana, the son of John and Heather (Owen) Metzger. He married the former Jean Bolenbaugh on July 30, 1960. Together, they raised three sons, Michael, Guy, and Ty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHe proudly served in the United States Navy on the USS Iowa<\/em> and the USS Galveston<\/em>. After returning home, Tom worked and retired from GKN. An active member of the Rockford Eagles and St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Van Wert, he enjoyed gardening and spending time with his family. Tom will be remembered as a loyal and loving husband, father, grandfather, and friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tom is survived by his wife, Jean; his sons, Michael, Guy (Theresa), and Ty (Tammy); his brother, John (Laura) Metzger; his sister, Linda Edwards; several nieces; his 10 grandchildren; 25 great-grandchildren; and four great-great grandchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was preceded in death by his father, John; mother Heather; and his brother Richard “Dick” Metzger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visitation is from 11 a.m.-noon Tuesday, September 1, at Brickner Funeral Home in Van Wert. Graveside services will follow immediately in Woodland Cemetery, with the Rev. John Bohnsack officiating. Graveside military honors will be rendered by combined units of American Legion Post 178 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5803, both of Van Wert.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In Lieu of flowers, the family request memorials to St. Jude\u2019s Hospital or the Disabled American Veterans of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Condolences may be expressed at www.bricknerfuneralhome.com<\/a> or emailed to bricknerfuneralhome@bright.net.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thomas J. Metzger passed peacefully at home on Thursday, August 27, 2020, at age 81. Tom was born October 31, 1938, in New Haven, Indiana, the son of John and Heather (Owen) Metzger. He married the former Jean Bolenbaugh on July 30, 1960. Together, they raised three sons, Michael, Guy, and Ty. He proudly served in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-10 01:11:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}