NEW ULM–Thomas “Tom” Macho, 78, of New Ulm died Sunday, April 6, 2025 at the New Ulm Medical Center in New Ulm, surrounded by his family. Funeral service will be 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 22, 2025 at Christ the King Lutheran Church in New Ulm with pastor Timothy Anderson officiating. Visitation will be 4 – 7 p..m. Monday and 9 – 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Minnesota Valley Funeral Home – NORTH Chapel in New Ulm. To leave an online condolence for his family, or to sign the guestbook, go to: www.mvfh.org.

Thomas is survived by his wife Marilyn Macho, his sons Scott Macho and Adam (Christina Sorensen) Macho; brothers, Timothy (Cate) Macho, Paul (Beverly) Macho, Peter Macho; sisters, Luanne Macho (Evan Zins), Lori (Timothy) Kohn, Amy (David) Waibel; brother in-law Roger (Roxanne) Havemeier; sister in-law Sandy Havemeier; his beloved grandchildren Clara Macho, Lucy Macho, Cooper Macho and Cora Macho and many nieces and nephews.

He was proceeded in death by his parents Charles and Lucille Macho, His in-laws Willis and Lanetta Havemeier, brother in-law Galen Havemeier.

Thomas was born on June 28th, 1946, in Burbank California, his family moved back to New Ulm shortly after. Tom attended New Ulm Cathedral, graduating in 1964 and went on to Mankato State University pursuing an education degree, graduating in 1968. He started his teaching career working at Washington Elementary School and ended up staying for his whole 35-year career. Around this time, Tom was introduced to Marilyn Havemeier. Wearing a giant lapel and a paisley tie on their first date was enough to draw her in and keep her following him around to hockey rinks for years to come. They married on June 3, 1972, and had 52 wonderful years together.

Even though, self admittingly, not being a great athlete, Tom found a passion for sports and dedicated much of his time to creating new opportunities for athletics in the New Ulm area. During his time working for New Ulm Park and Rec, he helped develop many programs including the t-ball program, Westside bi-county and junior bi-county baseball, soccer and softball. His passion and greatest involvement went to hockey. With his involvement, hockey grew from a parks and rec offering to the founding of the New Ulm Hockey association. The growth of the program lead to the High School starting the varsity program in 1975. He was named their first head coach and coached the Eagles for the next 30 years, taking the team to their first state tournament in 1992. After his time in New Ulm, Tom helped coach the Sleepy Eye high school team for three years until the combination of the two programs. His dedication to coaching was recognized when he was inducted into the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Hall of Fame in 2009 and the creation of the Tom Macho Award. This award is given in recognition to other volunteers of the New Ulm/Sleepy hockey association for their services and dedication. His fingerprints on hockey didn’t stop in the New Ulm area. He was heavily involved with the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association and was on the three-person committee that set forth the change to the two-class system we see today. This gave opportunities for players at smaller schools to be seen and have success at the state tournament.

Even after retirement, Tom still was finding a way to be involved in sports, serving on the New Ulm Baseball Board and spending time volunteering at Johnson and Mueller Park. Outside of sports, Tom enjoyed working in the garden and lawn work. His favorite was spending time with his friends and family at their lake home and adored time he got to spend with his grandchildren. Although not handy with a hammer, Tom was a builder. He built the program, players, and people. No matter how big the task might seem, if he thought it would be better for his students, players, or community, Tom fought for it. He had a special way of sharing his vision that helped others buy in. It’s why no matter what team they played, his players always felt like they had a shot. It’s how New Ulm started playing hockey on an outdoor rink with square corners, and through determination they saw the building of Vogel arena and expanding past that into the two sheets at the Civic Center within a 35-year window. He was exceptionally grateful for the students, teachers, coaches, players, parents, and other dreamers who saw and shared his passions and helped make all this possible. What brought him joy was seeing the success in others and leaving his world better than he found it. No one has been able to tell us if there is hockey in heaven, but we do know if there isn’t, Tom is already talking with others about getting a teamtogether and how they can build a rink.

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