I'm very sorry to hear this. I had asked about how he was doing when I was in Australia a couple of weeks ago, and the news was not encouraging. I should have tried to call.
I have not met many golf writers who loved the game as much as Tom Ramsey did. He loved to write about it, and he loved to get out and see new courses. When I was keeping the ballots for the rankings of the top 100 courses in the world, it was Tom who had seen more courses on our ballot than anyone else.
He had battled cancer for the last ten years. When he thought he had it licked, 6-7 years ago, he said he was going to take his doctor to play some of his favorite courses around the world, and I asked where I could help arrange a game for them. He picked Merion -- he said it was special to him because of David Graham's win there in 1981 -- and I was able to arrange for three of us to play with a member friend. It was a great day, and it was only afterward that his doctor took me aside to note that it was the first time Tom had been able to walk 18 holes since his surgery. [Merion is walking-only, and Tom did not want to ask for an allowance.]
He was a big fan of The Confidential Guide -- he had one of the original copies because he had been such a help to me on my first trips to Australia -- and he used to print what I'd said about various tournament venues in the papers across Australia, long before the book was in the public domain. I did not know what to think of that at first, but it certainly helped get my name out a bit in that part of the world, and ultimately paved the way for me to work down under. I will always owe him a great debt.
P.S. The book of his we've always liked most is one called "Great Australian Golf Holes", which has descriptions and great pics of many of the best holes on the sand belt courses and others in Oz. Right now, my copy is in the crew's apartment down at Streamsong, so they can look at great bunkers before they go to sleep every night ...