Friends started a fundraising drive to send him to a facility in Germany that specialized in cancer patients, but he became too weak to travel and was hospitalized in South Carolina until he got strong enough to travel. Tom traveled to a similar facility in Mexico, but the cancer had spread too far, and time was not on his side.

The first memorial tribute will take place at Medgar Evers College, Founder’s Auditorium, 1650 Bedford Avenue, followed the next day with a memorial service and salute at Rev. Johnny Ray Youngblood’s St. Paul’s Baptist Church, 859 Hendrix St., both located in his beloved Brooklyn. A partial list of invited guests include, Maya Angelou, Roberta Flack, Amiri Baraka, Jim Barnes, Elombe Brath, Ernie Crichlow, Errol Doris, Cy Edwards, Paul Goodnight, Rev. Marshall Hatch, Eli Kince, Sylvia Huen, Abbey Lincoln, George Edward Tait, Quincy Troupe, Randy Weston, Camille Yarbrough, The Putnam Avenue Group, Imani Dancers, Drummers and Singers and the St. Paul’s Praise Ministry of dancers, drummers and singers.

Many of Tom’s lifelong friends, and some new ones have pitched in to form a committee and production team “NCA, Family & Friends of Tom Feelings”. headed by Co-chairs, Kwame Brathwaite, NCA president  and Dr. Brenda Greene,  Director of The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College.

Committee members and friends, Richard Barclift, Gloria C. Thomas, Gertrude Harvey, Khaliyah Washington-Seely, Gwendolyn Wilson, Frank Edwards, Lillian Harvey, Lafayette Robinson, Grant Spears, Surya Peterson, Izell Glover, Jimmie Mannas, Emmett Wigglesworth, Kitty Chavis, Betty Thomas, Abdul Aziz, Miriam Francis, Brenda Mattingly, Otto Neals, Pat Cummings, Joan Banks and Matthew Meade, have put together a program that includes friends from all over the U.S. This tribute is endorsed by Kamili Feelings, Tom’s youngest son and executor of his estate.