Michael A. R. Tinglof of Concord, MA passed away on January 7, 2021. Born in Boston, MA on June 1, 1966, he was the son of the late Bruce Warren Tinglof of Boston and Carolyn (Hvoslef) Ekle of Nashua NH. Michael's first word was "VroomVroom", imitating the sound a car made, and it meant "let's go for a ride!" This evolved into a life long love for cars. At age 2, Michael exhibited a quick memory and a flair for rhythm when he recited the poem "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" for a Christmas program. At ten years old, a modeling agency in Boston MA selected Michael as the cover model for the "Star Bird Command Base" produced by Milton Bradley in the early days of electronic space ship toys. He loved being photographed playing with the toys while being paid. While in high school, Michael developed his interest in early computing. December 1983, Issue of Compute! Magazine published Michael's article "Bitmap Graphics on the 64" which was used by the Los Angeles school system as a computer tutorial in classrooms throughout the city. The article can be found by clicking here . He went on to develop a spreadsheet program which was also published both in the magazine and later in the Second Book of Commodore 64 by Compute! Publishing. While still in school, Michael developed a billing software program for a local medical office geared specifically to the needs of their practice. Something that was not available commercially at that time. He was awarded a government scholarship to attend "Critical Thinking Skills" summer program held at a university in North Carolina where he joined top high school scholars from around the country to participate in critical thinking projects to benefit others. At Merrimack High School, NH, he was awarded a National Merit Scholarship, Rensselaer Medal for outstanding math and science students and graduated in 1984 with 4.0 GPA. Mike enjoyed hiking, biking, skiing, swimming, miniature golfing and driving his vehicles—all of them, cars, trucks, motorcycles. He also had a love and talent for working with animals having raised chickens, cats and dogs growing up. His mother recalls a film whose title "A Man for all Seasons" encapsulates the divine being that Michael is and the profound effects of his compassion for the good of all. God was pleased to express divine love and care through Mike's twinkling eyes and expressive eyebrows, his hands outstretched in giving, his creativity, his spirit of generosity. Michael went on to graduate from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA with a BS in Computer Science 1988 where he met his second love Maria, with his first being an old hand me down Buick gifted to him from his Uncle Richard while he was in HS. After college Michael and Maria married and they moved to Groton Massachusetts were they lived for 10 years. From Groton they moved to Concord MA where he and his wife raised their 2 sons until his death. Michael started his career after college following in the footsteps of his step father the late William Ekle working for Digital Equipment Corporation. From there he continued work developing cutting edge, innovative computer solutions for over 30 years. He was well respected for his technical lead and architecture rolls developing innovative solutions to complex problems. Continuing his career he worked at Brooktroot Software and from there moved to the role of Principal Software Engineer at Telekol which was subsequently acquired by Nokia. Michael went on to co-found iConverse as VP of R&D leading efforts in early mobile phone applications foreseeing the future in this technology as a way for businesses to communicate. He was co-founder and CTO of Imidio leading the technical design of conferencing software and worked to form a technical partnership with Sitescape and the companies soon merged where he assumed the roll of Director of Communication Engineering at SiteScape which was later acquired by Novell. Michael also formed his own consulting company Apreta where he continued on with the work he started at Imidio by doing consulting work for Novell and Mercuri. Michael held the position of CTO at Kitsy Lane, Inc leading development of a social ecommerce and virtual sales platform integrating emails, video and more to create cutting edge marketing and sales solutions on platforms like Facebook. He rounded out his career with consulting work for Rocket Farm Studios, Everbridge and his most recent years held the position of Staff Software Engineer at Brightcove engaged in live video development. It could be said without exaggeration by many that Michael was the smartest person they had ever worked with. He could create software solutions to complex problems out of thin air. And yet beyond computers, the man could fix anything. He was good with anything mechanical, or electrical from cars to kitchen appliances, from woodworking to furnace repair and plumbing. He had many hobbies and talents revolved around building and fixing things. Michael and Maria became property owners where he put those handy skills to work on many occasions. He could take 2 broken refrigerators and make one working one or removed parts from one broken heater and fix several others. Just recently his son's microwave wasn't working and he opened it up and got it working again by unplugging circuit board and moving the innards around with his magic touch. He turned to his boys and taught them "sometimes things just need a little attention". He was kind, patient and had a good sense of humor. When not at work or spending a late night under the hood of a car, Michael enjoyed mountain hiking with many trips to Acadia National Park over the years and his most recent trip was to CA in December. The man could practically move mountains. He would find a way to move a couch or other large heavy object independently and often late at night when no one was around to help him. Michael had a very gentle spirit and was good with animals. This came in handy when he released a wild turkey that was trapped in the backyard fence. Michael was a gentle and loving father reading to his sons every night when they were young. He sometimes took late evening car rides to a bookstore combining his love for reading and cars and helping keep a fussy kid happy. There were many family game nights as he often played with the boys and many vacation adventures to Cape Cod, Maine, Florida, California and as the boys got older Greece, London, Paris and Spain. Michael leaves behind his beloved wife of 30 years Maria (Kaliontzis) Tinglof, his pride and joy sons Seth and George Tinglof, his mother Carolyn Ekle of Nashua NH, his sisters Elizabeth Tinglof, Christina Tinglof and her husband Michael Zahniser, step mother Charlene Tinglof, mother in law Ernestine Kaliontzis and sister in law Joanne Kaliontzis as well as many cousins and friends and an old BMW, a Saab and a pickup truck. He will be deeply missed by all. A virtual service and celebration of life is planned for Saturday, January 30th at 2 pm. Click the following link to join: Virtual Service . In lieu of flowers and gifts, donations can be made to the following: Fusion Academy Newton Scholarship Fund , choose designation 'Fusion Academy' and school 'Newton' on form. Or by mail to Fusion Academy, 320 Needham St Suite 200, Newton, MA 02464. Forest Hills Covenant Church, 455 Arborway, Boston MA 02130 attn: Christina Tinglof Project Bread or your local food bank. (www.projectbread.org). Arrangements are under the care of Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord.