Alumni Dinner Honorees 2008
Tom Carmody '69
No one can write a better profile about Judge Tom Carmody ’69 than did his daughter, Jamie, or his brother Matt ’75, when they eulogized him six days after he died of a sudden heart attack at age 56 on April 20, 2008. And at the luncheon after the funeral, first born son Tom ’00 showed he had his dad in him when he stood up and delivered his toast straight from the heart. While still in a devastating shock, Jamie, Matt, and Tom III captured the remarkable spirit of their dad and brother as a whole - selfless and funny family man; capable and devoted lawyer and judge; inspiring and loyal friend and confidante.
Most of this profile humbly attempts to capture what Judge Carmody meant to Brother Rice High School. Tom first began volunteering for alumni events fifteen years ago, serving pizza, greeting alumni at games, and keeping us on task for the Alumni Ad Book. As the Alumni Association Vice President of School Affairs for 11 years, and the All-Alumni Reunion Dinner Master of Ceremonies for 10 years, Tom profoundly influenced how the organization set its goals while also setting its tone for achieving them.
Behind the scenes in meetings, he quickly grasped someone’s ideas and either rendered a spot-on judgment about what direction it could take, or just as quickly deferred and endorsed someone else’s better judgment. He was there when the Alumni Board first started kicking around the idea of having an All-Alumni Career Day, an event that has more than doubled in size, thanks to many of the decisions made fourteen years ago and refined since. An avid golfer, Tom’s ideas also helped the annual golf outing achieve growing success.
Borrowing from a concept Tom observed at the University of Iowa, he created STAT, Seniors Today, Alumni Tomorrow. Since 2003, Seniors have been purchasing maroon STAT polo style shirts, that they are allowed to exclusively wear on Mondays, when the rest of the students wear shirt and ties. The participation level for STAT tripled in five years, with more than half of the Classes of 2008 and 2009 purchasing and wearing the shirts throughout the year.
In 1998, the Alumni Association asked Judge Carmody to serve as the master of ceremony for the All-Alumni Reunion Dinner, the first to inaugurate the Alumni Hall of Fame. Tom prepared for weeks in advance, directing every detail, so that the lights, the podium and the people on stage were positioned just right, at just the right time, succeeding in capturing and holding the attention of alumni, even though most attended in order to kick back and converse boisterously with classmates. Judge Carmody remained the overwhelming favorite to reprise his MC role every year since then, introducing every alumni hall of famer for the last ten years.
As Presiding Judge at the Cook County courthouse in Bridgeview, Tom oversaw thousands of cases. Appointed by Chief Judge Timothy Evans, in August of 2006, Tom was elected to the bench in 1992, through the grassroots efforts of a devoted family and many lifetime friends, along with colleagues who worked with Tom at three Public Defender’s offices for 17 years. Evans praised Tom in the Southtownstar as “calm and thoughtful” in the face of significant crises. “He kept things moving and made sure people’s cases were kept on track,” Evans said.
Evans called Tom a good friend. Anyone who knew Tom felt that way about him, because he felt the same way about them. Sure, Tom kept things moving at Bridgeview after the death of two colleagues, judges James O’Malley and Jim Ryan (father of Matt Ryan ’04), but he did so while painfully suffering through the loss of good friends. Tom cared about everyone he knew.
To a packed St. Bernadette Church, Matt expressed how proud he was whenever he met someone who knew his brother because he “knew that the person’s encounter with him had to be a positive experience.” In an open letter to her dad delivered from the same pulpit Jamie said:
“Your natural charisma and good character cannot be matched by anyone. You carried yourself in a way that made people want to know you and be around you. And you knew so many people. And that is why we would always say that ‘My dad knows everyone.’ I could not go somewhere without someone saying ‘Your dad’s Tom Carmody? I know him, he is a good man and such a nice gentleman.’ I would kindly say thank you, but really be thinking ‘I know that already, but I’m glad everyone else does too.’ And you would always joke with me and say, ‘Jamie, would you tell your mother how lucky she is to have married such a handsome, good guy.’ I know the way you said it you were being funny, but we all know it is true.”
Tom and Linda Carmody loved being together, by themselves, with friends, at Tommy’s volleyball games, watching Mike ’03 perform on stage or watching Jack ’07 pitch for the Crusaders. Tom could also be counted on to attend many other Brother Rice games and events, that did not involve his kids.
Matt wrote in an e-mail to Alumni Director Jim Casey ‘70 that he never thought he could miss someone so much. It is amazing how many of Tom’s friends feel the same way, while conceding that no peer was closer to Tom than Matt. When told by Matt that he and Linda wanted him to be a pall bearer, Casey said, “I could not have felt more pride and humility mixed with such profound sadness. I don’t know how I didn’t completely lose it seeing him in a casket next to his beautiful family during the wake, that could only have been held in a church with plenty of room, or when listening to various tributes to Tom, or when witnessing so many judges weeping noticeably as they passed him just before they closed the casket. What sustains me in the absence of his presence at meetings, our good times with friends, or the countless phone calls filled with his utterly unique and infectious ‘Carmody laugh,’ is the gratitude I feel for the good fortune to have shared and loved everything about such a great guy.”
Because Tom served as an Alumni Association vice president for 11 years, serving a few as either the adbook chairman or assistant, and because he created and helped launch successful events like Career Day and STAT, while attending golf outings and maintaining a commanding presence as emcee at the dinner, we are proud to induct him into the Alumni Hall of Fame as a 2008 Man of the Year. Because he was a great friend to more than we can count, we will gladly remember and profoundly miss the life of Tom Carmody.
