Thomas Doyle Reilly left this world suddenly and without any warning that we heeded in the early hours of Sunday, June 12, 2016. He was born on the first day of summer, June 21, 1944, at home in the sparkling little city of Newburyport, Massachusetts, the youngest of the 13 children, and the seventh son, of Margaret Celia (Doyle) and Linus Charles Reilly.

Tom spent his earliest years in the south end of Newburyport at 52 Milk Street, where the floor in the parlor would bounce when the Doyle brothers were visiting and his mother Maggie played the piano. From the days when he left the house wearing only his Pop’s tie and headed to Ma Maguire’s for toast and tea, to the days spent with neighborhood pals harassing the girls on the Brown School playground, or buying candy at Tony Baker’s store, Tom roamed the south end of Newburyport, and knew every inch of it. Later, the kids discovered March’s Hill and Devil’s Den. Many of those friends have gone on before, but many are still in Newburyport. On visits home, when Tom would point out every house and who had lived there, we’d hear “Hey, Tommy,” so often it seemed like he’d never left.

Immaculate Conception was his school and his church. The nuns did their best to keep him in line.

Tom’s Pop died in 1954; Tom and Maggie and his sisters Peggy and Patsy lived on at 52 Milk Street for a while, and then Tom moved to the Rolfe farm in Newbury, living with his sister Ginny, and her husband John Rolfe, who became his second father. The Rolfe kids were more brothers and sisters to Tom than nieces and nephews.

John taught Tom to drive a truck and a tractor, and milk the cows. Tom’s first jobs were with John, haying Old Town Hill and the salt marshes and fields around Newbury. Tom worked hard his whole life—on the construction of the BART tunnel between Oakland and San Francisco, for the Newburyport Highway Department, and, in St. Petersburg, for Rudy’s Rentals; he sailed on the Sabino in the Merrimac, and fished with Captain Jim Corbin on the Rover; here in Maine, he worked for Jeff Berzinis, and for Blue Hill Garage since 1987. He had many happy years working for the Baker family at their Salt Pond home. He was Sedgwick Animal Control Officer for a time, and was also a member of the Sedgwick Volunteer Fire Department. He was happiest on a tractor, baling hay, or on the water, with salt spray on his face.

Known variously as Uncle Tommy, Leland, Thomasina, Pinky, Ratman and Aunt Gert, he made everything fun. He couldn’t be beaten at cribbage or backgammon or badminton, he could fly any kite, identify any kind of cow, feed wild birds from his hand, cook breakfast better than anyone, drive through any snowstorm, and coax corn from clay. There wasn’t a dog, cat or baby he didn’t love, or who didn’t love him.

Following the admonishment of Aunt Betsy Trotwood, Tom was never mean nor cruel. He told the best stories, and loved poetry, although none that was studied in school. He treated everyone the same, no matter which side of the tracks they were from or which side of the fence they were on.

Tom leaves behind his wife and pal of 38 years, Cindy, and his mother-in-law, Leslie Diodati, both of Sedgwick; his father-in-law, Ronald Diodati, of Shapleigh; his son, Kenneth; his daughter Kate, and her partner Jason Chamberlain of Carlsbad, California; his daughter Meghan, and her husband Andrew Birdsall, and their children, Charlie, Mollie, and Henry, of Penobscot; and two dear nearly daughters, Elise Whalen Furer of Long Island City, NY, and Emily Paquin Abbas of Oak Harbor, Washington. Bereft as well are 4 silly cats and 1 nice dog, who miss him day and night. We are lost without him.

His brother Lawrence “Mick” Reilly and his wife Mary, his sisters Barbara Corbin, Gertrude “Peggy” Beck, and Elinor “Patsy” Hawkes, sisters-in-law Charlene Reilly, Erika Daigle, Helena Thorne and Clara Diodati, and nieces and nephews, much loved and many, also survive him.
Going on before were his parents, and his brothers Basil, Daniel, Joseph, Paul, and Francis (Frank), and his sisters Mary (Lid), Alice and Virginia (Ginny).

There will be a funeral Mass at the Immaculate Conception Church, 42 Green Street, Newburyport, at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 16, followed by a bit of food and drink on the top floor of the Sullivan building, at 25 Temple Street.

Condolences may be left at www.jordanfernald.com, and anyone wishing to make a gift of remembrance might consider the Sedgwick Volunteer Fire Department, 202 Ridge Road, Sedgwick, ME 04676. Later in the summer, there will be a gathering in Tom’s memory back home in Sedgwick.