Thomas John Morgan Sr.
February 3, 1934 – July 23, 2023
Thomas John Morgan Sr., 89, passed away in the early hours of Sunday, July 23, 2023, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, after a long illness.
Tom was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 3, 1934, to Thomas and Anna (Kuzma) Morgan. He was the second of two children, his sister Phyllis (Bellazzini) predeceased him in 1975.
He received a Catholic education, attending St. Joachim grade school in Chicago where he was an altar boy. After grade school, he was accepted at the elite Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago, graduating in 1951. After that, he attended St. Joesph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 1955.
On September 15, 1956, Tom married the love of his life, Joan Davis, a girl he had known since grammar school. They remained happily married for 66 years.
In 1955 Tom began his professional career at Wisconsin Steel, a division of International Harvester. He loved the mill, working there for 26 years until it closed in 1981. After a brief break, he was hired at Amforge (a division of Rockwell International) in Chicago, working there for six years before being transferred in 1987 to a Rockwell facility in Fairfield, Iowa. He officially retired from Rockwell in 1996.
Since then, Tom and Joan have enjoyed a comfortable retirement at Savannah Lakes Village in McCormick, South Carolina.
In 1960, Tom and Joan purchased a house in south suburban Dolton, Illinois. They raised a family of four, Debra, Thomas Jr, Lorette, and James. They also forged strong, lifelong friendships with other families in the neighborhood.
Tom was a kind, sociable man, described as “having a great smile”. He was quick with a quip and a good story and proud of his family. He was generous with his time, always there to support his children in their academic and athletic pursuits.
While he had no formal technical or tradesman training, he had an ingenious and organized engineering mind and was very handy. He always had a well-organized workbench with all the right tools, which he used to keep a well-maintained home and facilitate numerous projects with his children.
Active in his community, he mentored other children through Junior Achievement and Indian Guides. He held several positions (including that of President) in Eiche Turners, a fraternal organization dedicated to the development of sound minds and sound bodies. At St Jude’s, the local Catholic parish, Tom enthusiastically participated in the St Jude Players, displaying his song and dance talents in multiple productions as part of Port-O’-Call, a popular musical revue that ran for many years. Tom and Joan were well known for their dancing prowess. They were often the first couple on the dance floor, dazzling the crowd at weddings and other social events. A lifelong devout Catholic, he was also an Extraordinary Minister.
Tom read the sports pages and enjoyed following Chicago’s championship teams. He loved watching college football on Saturday afternoons, and on Sunday, you could find him perched in his easy chair watching the final round of a golf tournament. In his retirement, Tom enjoyed fishing from the pontoon boat he shared with friends. He also played golf, a game he struggled with like 98 percent of those who take up the sport.
Tom is survived by his loving wife Joan, his four children; Debra Knych (sp. Edward) of Oakland, California; Thomas Jr. (sp. Christina) of Rochester Hills, Michigan; Lorette Orban of Homer Glen, Illinois; and James (sp. Michelli) of Richmond, Virginia; and his five grandsons, Nick and Will Morgan, Kyle and Alex Morgan, and John T. Orban.
In remembrance of Tom’s life, the family asks that any charitable donations be made to Mt. Carmel High School. https://www.mchs.org/give/mount-carmel-educational-foundation. Services for Tom will be announced at a later date.
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