Thomas Westwick Merideth (known as Tim)

Tim Merideth died unexpectedly at Cottage Hospital April 4, 2026. Tim was born in Santa Barbara April 24, 1957 to parents Frank Eugene Merideth and Janice Pattison Merideth. Tim had an older brother, Frank Jr. and a younger brother, Kenneth Robert.

Tim attended San Marcos High where he played on the football team, graduating in 1965. He was accepted to the University of Wyoming and found that he preferred the great outdoors to academia. He was an avid fisherman, scuba diver and backpacker and worked for the Los Padres Hot-Shot team several summers fighting fires in CA, OR and ID. Tim also worked as a State Park aide at Gaviota State Beach in the mid-seventies. He served in the National Guard for a six-year term.

It was during this time that Tim changed course, taking classes at Santa Barbara City College to learn the skills to become an electrician, placing top in his class. He was certified as a full-fledged electrician, first working union jobs, including work on the Santa Barbara oil derricks, then working at the University of California Santa Barbara for almost 20 years until his retirement at age 53.

Living in a close-knit community at Painted Cave, Santa Barbara suited Tim and he thrived on retirement. He enjoyed puttering around with his electrical projects and being a ham radio operator with a signal repeater position at the top of San Marcos Pass. Tim also loved trips to Death Valley National Monument, South Pacific and Davy Brown Campground in the Santa Barbara back-country. He took up ballroom and swing dancing and enjoyed competitions.

Eventually Tim bought a mobile home in the Rancho Goleta Lakeside Park where he enjoyed sitting on his porch greeting his neighbors with a smile or a light hearted quip. Living across from the quiet part of the lake enabled him to do bird-watching, while also engaging in conversations with friends who stopped by to visit.

Tim will be missed by his brothers, his cousins and his nieces and nephews and by all his friends and neighbors who had the pleasure of his company.

A celebration of Tim’s life will take place April 25 at 2:00 p.m. in the clubhouse at Rancho Goleta Lakeside Mobile Home Park, 945 Ward Drive, Santa Barbara. Donations in memory of Tim can be sent to Santa Barbara City College for a student in the electrician’s course or to the Santa Barbara Audubon Society.