Toby E Graham

Toby Graham was born June 29, 1973 in Ft. Collins, CO--the first child of Jerry and Janet Graham. He grew up on the farm north of Wray and graduated with the WHS Class of '91. By end of his junior yr. of high school, Toby knew he wanted to attend Arizona State in Tempe, AZ. And that would have been a great plan if not for 2 things: ASU was a heck of
a party school and Kip Martin Racing was located in Phoenix. Kip's step­ sons, Brad and Darren became wonderful friends of Toby's. ASU, for whatever reason, asked Toby to take a sabbatical his second yr. and Toby enrolled in Scottsdale Community College. While he still spent his "spare" time at the Martin shop, he certainly did better in his classes.
Three and a half yrs. into college in Arizona, Toby was home for Christmas break when he told his parents he wanted to transfer to CSU and change majors to Computer Information Systems. The change was made and Toby graduated from CSU on a Saturday in May of '97 and o:q. the following Monday was in Indianapolis, IN starting his new job with Pi Research which built data acquisition systems for race cars. This gave Toby the chance to travel all over the country and make incredible friends in the racing world. Pi was sold to GM Motor Sports and he became a GM employee for 2 yrs. traveling with the GM team doing support for all types of race cars. After the 2 yrs. he became a contract employee of GM Motor Sports. He worked on the World Championship Team Winston
Top Fuel car driven by Gary Scelzi. It was at this time, Toby began designing electronics for racing applications with his new business XBase Computing.
While living in Indianapolis, he jokingly responded to a personal ad on Yahoo. The ad was placed, jokingly, by Courtney's roommate in college. Toby, jokingly, responded, thinking it was too good to be true. Subsequently, the joking became serious. The two were engaged in 2000 and married Sept. 8, 2001. After the wedding in Indiana, they moved to Sterling, CO with the hopes of starting a business venture. When that opportunity was no longer available, they chose . o make Sterling their home and he continued his drag racing business: While in their first home, on Park Street, Grace Rose was born: in 2006 and .then in 2008, their second, Sullivan Elayer. Because Toby was so tenacious, he had many avenues open up to him that were very successful due to his creative mind. The most successful of his inventions started with his Dad, Jerry Graham, in 2008, with the liftoff of the product, Graham Electric Planter Drives, in 2009. Around this time, Toby started buildit1g a new home for the family which was completed in 2010. In December, 2012, it was destroyed by a devastating fire. Again, because of Toby's "never give up" attitude, he rebuilt the idenical home on their same ground and they began residing there in Feb. 2014.

At the time of his death, GEP was being recognized world wide with units running .in South Africa, Australia, Ukraine, Brazil and at least 21 states. Toby's dream had taken off and will continue to grow. Toby's life journey has been an unfathomable accomplishment for a young man of only 41 yrs. Thank you God for the gift of having him in our lives.

Preceding him in death by his grandparents, Dick & Marilynn McAllister and Dale
& Inez Graham.

Survived by his wife, Courtney Graham; daughter, Grace Rose; son, Sullivan Elayer all of Sterling,Colorado; parents, Jerry and Janet Graham of Wray; sister, Melanie Godsey & husband, Chad of Wray; brother, Marty Graham & wife, Leela of
Naples, Florida; parents-in-law, Tom and Nikki Harless of Indianapolis, IN; numerous aunts, uncles, nieces, nephew and cousins.
Funeral services were held in Sterling,Colorado at the Emmanuel Baptist Church on Saturday, January 10, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. with Reverend John Roberts and Reverend Norman Stott officiating. A Private Family Interment was held in the Riverside Cemetery in Sterling,Colorado. Memorials may be made to the Edward Jones: Scholars Choice College 529 for Grace and Sullivan Graham. Schmidt-Jones Funeral Home (formerly Spellman-Schmidt Funeral Home} was in charge of arrangements.