Thomas Foley

Thomas W. Foley passed on January 8, 2013 at Hospice Atlanta Center.  Cause of death was cancer of the esophagus junction run amok.  Eighty-one years old, he was born in1931 in East Stroudsburg, PA.  Tom had a joyous childhood in the nearby village of Delaware Water Gap, where his family had built and operated the Reenleigh Hotel and Wolf Hollow Golf Course, which hosted the first Eastern Open in 1926.  The Great Depression eventually brought an end to this phase of his development, and in 1942 the Foley family moved to Chicago, IL.  Educated by Dominicans at Fenwick High School and Jesuits at Loyola University, Chicago (BSC and Masters in Industrial Relations), following service in both the U. S. Navy and the U. S Army,  Tom enjoyed a thirty-five year career in labor relations and human resources with United States Gypsum Company, first in Chicago; then in Atlanta.  Caught up in the fervor of bankruptcies and takeovers in the late1980s, his position was eventually eliminated by the Company in 1990.  Asked what he intended to do next, Tom promptly replied: “First thing I’m going to do is write a book about you bastards.”  The timing wasn’t right just then, but by 1993 USG engaged Tom to write its official corporate history.  Thirty thousand copies of United States Gypsum, A Company History were published in 1995.  The book was well received and is still widely used for new employee orientation and reference purposes.  He then turned his attention to a missionary priest among the Sioux Indians in the late 1880s, whose journals and papers he had found in his Aunt Mame’s closet in 1943.  Tom and his wife, Ruth, embarked on research and travels that took them to monasteries and archives from the Dakotas to Rome.  In between, they found time to visit every National Park except Big Bend, and to drive the ease, west and gulf coasts of the United States.  This led to the successful publication of three additional books: Father Francis M. Craft, Missionary to the Sioux, University of Nebraska Press, 2002; Faces of Faith, a history of the first order of Indian Sisters, Cathedral Foundation Press, 2008; and At Standing Rock and Wounded Knee The Journals and Papers of Father Francis M. Craft, 1888-1890, 2009, Arthur H. Clark Company, an Imprint of the University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.  He was especially proud to have four books on the shelves of the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian.  He treasured his many friends at the Ravinia Club here in Atlanta; and was particularly grateful for his adoption into VMTOGA, the Village Mill Tired Old Golfers Association.  Tom was preceded in death by his parents, Robert R. and Marie J. Foley (nee O’Connor), and brother Robert R. Foley, Jr.  He is survived by his sister, Clare M. Mellon of Villa Park, IL; his  loving wife of fifty-six years Ruth, (nee Hahn), wonderful sons Thomas W. Foley, Jr. (Tammy Kincaid) of Duluth, GA; John M. Foley, Dunwoody, GA; favorite daughter Eileen Marie (Stenhoff) of Seattle, WA.; and four grandchildren: Brian and Bethany Foley; and Erin Keeley, and Whitney Stenhoff.  The Memorial Service will be held Monday, January 14 at 10:30am at All Saints Catholic Church in Dunwoody, GA . In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Weinstein Hospice, Atlanta, GA.