Thomas A. Whelan, a memorial

Written 1993 October 19

Tom Whelan teaches his son to play chess (January 1973)

For those of you who didn't know much about my father, Thomas Adrian Whelan, he was born August 28, 1942 in Malverne, Long Island. His family moved to East Islip, and he met my mother in high school there. They were married October 10, 1964, after he'd served four years in the Air Force. They moved upstate, and he got his BS and MS in History from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He taught Social Studies at Saugerties High School until 1984. He and my mother had two children, me in 1969 and my sister Susan in 1971. They were separated in 1974 and divorced in 1976. My sister and I saw him every weekend until he moved to Florida in 1984. There he became a salesman and lived in the same trailer park as his mother until her death in 1991 and his older brother Arthur until yesterday. He is also survived by two younger sisters, Virginia and Teresa.

My fondest memories of my father center around baseball and football, and he's the reason why I'm such a big fan today. Every Sunday we'd watch the football games together, and since 1975, we played many games of Varsity Football, a dice football game from 1950 that he and his father used to play together. He teased me about being a Los Angeles Ram fan, but after he moved to Florida, he'd call me almost routinely after the end of an exciting Rams game. In the summers of 1980 thru 1983, we followed the adult amateur Hudson Valley Rookie League and Mohawk-Hudson Baseball League, and were avid fans of the Saugerties Dutchmen, many of whom were his former students. We traveled as far afield as St. Johnsville, 110 miles from Kingston, and the 60 miles to Albany were almost routine. In 1993, the Kingston Daily Freeman's summer sports intern, Jay Levy, honored us in print with his "Seeya Down the Road Jack" award for the MHBL's most traveling fans. After Dad moved to Florida, I'd send him lengthy updates on the MHBL. Over the years, Dad was a fan of the New York Jets, Green Bay Packers, New York Yankees (although he taught me to respect the Red Sox as worthy adversaries), New York Mets, Miami Dolphins, Florida Marlins, and of late, the "Gashouse" Philadelphia Phillies. The night before he died, he watched the Phillies' 6-4 defeat of the Toronto Blue Jays in game two of the World Series.

He also taught me to play chess, and had me playing with the pieces at the age of three during the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match. By 1978, we were watching Shelby Lyman give his reports on the Karpov-Korchnoi match. Although he retired from teaching in 1984 (due to the cold weather and juvenile delinquents he had to contend with as a 10th grade teacher in New York State), he continued to read about history, especially his specialty of 20th century European History. My sister and I saw him every year or two, either in Florida or New York, the last time being last December in Palm Bay. I last spoke to him two Sundays ago, on the last day of the baseball season. My sister spoke to him just Sunday night, right before the Phillies game.

Needless to say, I loved my father very much; he's still a big part of who I am today. From now on, a part of my life will always be missing.

Best wishes to you all,
John Thomas Whelan

Thomas Adrian Whelan
1942-1993
R.I.P. Dad