E.Thomas Kovic (born Eli Kovacavich) was born in Chisholm, Minnesota in 1920.  Eli's mother, Anna Delivuk, came to this country as an immigrant from the former Yugoslavia.  She was of Croatian decent.  Eli grew up on a farm in Minnesota during the depression.  Later on he would enlist in the United States Navy and be stationed in Washington D.C. where he remained during the conflict of World War II.  When the war ended in 1945 he married Patricia A. Lamb and together they brought up six children: Suzanne, Ronald, Patricia, Thomas, James, and Jack.  Following the war he and his bride moved out to Wisconsin, now the home of his mother and eight brothers and sisters.  They then moved to Long Island, New York, first settling in Levitown and then in Massapequa where they remained for about 20 years.  Following the war and the move to Long Island Eli got work as a checker in the A & P.  He eventually worked his way up to assistant manager and then manager of a number of the chains.  He had a keen sense of the outdoors and how to survive in the wilderness.  He was a kind and gentle man and an all around jack of all trades.

Eli recently died on May 1, 1999 in his home in Yuma Arizona, a victim of prostrate cancer.  He was surrounded  and survived by his children during that time and leaves an endelable mark on their lives and the lives of others he touched.