Thomas Michael Eng

A humble, hardworking, and easy-going character, whose kind and caring spirit was accented by a jovial (if sometimes mischievous and sarcastic) sense of humor, Thomas Michael Eng passed away suddenly on April 24, 2021, at home in Cedar Park, Texas, held by his wife Cecilia.

Born on October 6, 1941, in Brooklyn, NY, Tom grew up in the Park Slope neighborhood playing stickball, exploring “Devil’s Cave” with his friends in nearby Prospect Park, and sneaking into Dodgers games at Ebbets Field. The 8th Street stickball team was so organized they even had tee shirts emblazoned with their name, the “Crusaders,” raising funds through a neighborhood raffle with a top prize of $10! As for Tom’s beloved Dodgers, they were always the Brooklyn Dodgers to him, even after their tragic move to Los Angeles, an event he mourned for his entire life, along with the first car he bought, his Chevy Malibu Super Sport, which was stolen and subsequently found stripped under the Brooklyn Bridge. When Tom was drafted into the Army, he entrusted the Chevy Malibu to his younger brother Bill to use until his return from Service. On that infamous day, Tom called Bill, who had moved to Bay Ridge, to ask if he (Bill) had come by and taken or moved the car. Bill’s answer–“No, why do you ask?”–was met with stunned silence. From then on, if either the Dodgers or the Chevy Malibu ever came up in conversation, Tom would playfully perform a crying and longing lament about “my Dodgers!” or “my Chevy Malibu Super Sport!”

As a youngster, Tom was athletic as well as a daredevil. His dad bought him a 20-in bike, which he rode like a demon up and down 8th Street, Brooklyn. He even rode it standing on his head, without crashing into anyone. When the local Boy Scout troop that most of the neighborhood boys belonged to announced the formation of a drum and bugle corp, Tom’s dad went out and bought him a bugle, which he applied himself to learning. Family lore doesn’t record how well he played, but he must have given it his best.

In fact, being a professional baseball player was one of Tom’s dreams growing up, which he actually almost had a chance of fulfilling when a scout from the Dodgers saw him play stickball and invited him to spring training in Florida. Although he didn’t take the scout up on that opportunity, he remained athletic, running track at Most Holy Trinity High School in Williamsburg. As he would fondly recount, he commuted there from Park Slope by taking the F train to the Smith-9 St. station, where he would transfer to the G to complete the trip to school. It was from his upbringing in Brooklyn that he cultivated his love of pizza—in the form of both individual “slices” and whole “pies”—and Italian food generally, and also cursing in Italian, this last of which came across particularly authentic in his heavy Brooklyn accent. A consummate New Yorker, one of his time-honored refrains was, “Eh, whad ya gonna do?”

Tom went to work at a young age to support his mother and younger brother following the death of their father. All during high school, he worked at a restaurant owned by relatives, who took them in until they were able to support themselves again. After studying briefly at Long Island University, Tom was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War era and was stationed in Germany, where he served as a medic. It was upon his return to the U.S. that he met Cecilia. Set up on a blind date by mutual friends, she described him as “tall, dark, and handsome,” but also “decisive”: On their first date, out with the couple who set them up, the four of them went to rent pedal boats together. When the other couple asked whether they should rent a single boat or two separate ones, Tom told them, “Get your own!” Tom and Cecilia married soon after, and he counted seeing her as a young bride in the church on their wedding day as one of his most cherished memories.

In the summer of 1972, Tom, Cecilia, and their son Michael moved from Park Slope to South Plainfield, NJ. There, they became lifelong residents, adding daughter Michelle and son Matthew to their family, with Cecilia’s father See Kwan Fung and mother Kwan Siu Fung joining them, too. Tom continued to commute into the city to his job at Chase Manhattan Bank for another 20 plus years before leaving that position to start a luncheonette business with Cecilia in nearby Middlesex, NJ. Although they dedicated a great deal of time, energy, and expense to that venture, it unfortunately did not last as long as they had hoped it would have. The experience opened onto the next stage of Tom’s career, however, as an Internal Revenue Officer with the United States Treasury Department, an accomplishment of which he was most proud. At every opportunity, he would show off his credentials, and he also liked to joke that he didn’t know why the folks he was tasked to track down were called “taxpayers”—“They don’t pay taxes. That’s why we’re after them!”

Tom retired from the Internal Revenue Service in 2005, and in the closing months of 2014, he and Cecilia moved to Austin, TX, to live with their son Matthew, daughter-in-law Rebekah, and their dog Pokey. With them, they went on to experience new adventures, including old fashioned train rides, visits to an aquarium, and playing games like “Bananagrams,” in which he would try to find every opportunity to spell out mobster-related words, like “the don.”

Above all, Tom was a family man. He loved and respected his parents, and took great care of his ailing mother in her later years. He loved and adored his wife, and he would have done anything for his children, becoming especially proud to see them all graduate college. Although generally soft-spoken, he was fiercely protective of his family when necessary, as in the time when one of his daughter’s paper route customers spoke disrespectfully to her, and he said to the gentleman, “Come over here, and say that to my face.” Michelle’s children, Tom and Cecilia’s grandchildren, would become his pride and joy in his retirement years.

Tom held onto his love of baseball for his entire life. He bought Michael a bat and glove on his first birthday and tried to teach him at one year old how to throw curve- and knuckleballs, later taking him to Yankees games (even though he was a lifelong National League fan) and sending him text updates on game scores up until his last days. Whenever the family would go to Cypress Hills Cemetery to visit his and Cecilia’s parents and other family members buried there, Tom would make a point to stop by and “say hello to Jackie [Robinson],” whose gravesite was nearby.

Other loves Tom had were watching football (including teasing Michael about Tom Brady’s exploits, enjoying how much Michael despises him), taking in cowboy westerns (John Wayne’s movies and the television series Gunsmoke were favorites, along with Audie Murphy’s career and life story), listening to Elvis (especially his renditions of “Amazing Grace” and “Unchained Melody”), reading true crime stories and books on history (Tom even had ambitions at one point to return to college and do a history degree), and dogs (to the frustration of Matthew, he would sometimes feed Pokey human food, and whenever he texted Michael, he would address his texts to him, Michael’s wife Kim, and their dog Lady).

Tom is missed for his warm and generous soul, nice laugh, and unique voice, which would intone his family’s names with deep resonance every time he greeted us, a sound that echoes still. He lives on through the values he practiced, which included carrying himself with integrity and the importance of being honest and kind to others.

Tom is predeceased by his father Gam Wah Eng, mother Shee Lee Eng, and his infant daughter Melissa Eng. At the time of his passing, he was survived by his wife of 50 years, Cecilia Fung Eng; son Michael Eng and daughter-in-law Kimberly Lamm; daughter Michelle Eng-Bendik, who herself sadly passed away in July 2021, and son-in-law Michael Bendik; son Matthew Eng and daughter-in-law Rebekah Hamner; grandchildren Malena, Michaelangelo, Malin, and Marymargaret Bendik; brother William Eng, nephew Vincent Eng, niece Lynda Eng Taschek, and their spouses and children.