Thomas R Mooney

Tom was born on June 16, 1933, in Kearny, New Jersey. He was raised in nearby Arlington, Kearny and Morris Plains, with his brothers Robert Thomas “Bob” Mooney and Terrance Edward “Terry” Mooney. His father, Thomas Edward Mooney, had a seventh-grade education, once played professional baseball for the Jersey City Giants (a farm team of the major league Giants) and owned a candy-making enterprise. His mother, Ruth Meurling Mooney, graduated from Bouvé College of Health Science at Tufts University, and worked an assembly line during World War II. Tom’s parents opened and ran a roadside eatery in Morris Plains, New Jersey for years.

Tom loved sports growing up, and played baseball, basketball and ran track at Morristown High School in Morristown, New Jersey. Distracted by friends and girls in his teen years, Tom repeated one year of high school, and graduated Morristown High in 1952, the same year as his younger brother, Bob. Following high school, Tom attended Florida Southern College (home of the ‘Mocs’) in Lakeland, Florida. Tom joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE), was elected class president, and completed training in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Tom also met his future wife, Mary Frances “Murf” Davis, also a student during his first week at FSC.

Upon graduating from Florida Southern in 1956 Tom was commissioned as an officer in the First Cavalry of United States Army and underwent basic training in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. On his flight to be deployed to Korea, Tom took an unscheduled layover in Hawaii; a decision which ultimately saved his life. The plane he was supposed to be on to Asia was lost somewhere in the Pacific.

In Korea, Tom initially was stationed as a forward observer in a remote camp near the 38th parallel. Tom managed a better assignment after meeting a General’s daughter who reportedly convinced the General to transfer Tom to run the Officer’s Mess at a base in Japan for the balance of his time in the Army until his discharge in 1958.

While Tom served in Korea, Murf obtained her master’s degree in religious education from Emory University. Tom returned from Korea, and married Murf in the Summer of 1958. Tom entered law school that Fall at the University of Florida. Tom later transferred to Stetson College of Law in St. Petersburg, Florida, and was elected class president during his final year at Stetson. Tom graduated law school in 1961, and took a position with State Farm in Atlanta, Georgia, as an adjuster.

Tom’s friend from UF Law, Irv Meyers, helped Tom get a job with him at the Orlando law firm of Maguire, Voorhis & Wells in 1963. Within a few months of starting at Maguire, Tom and

Murf adopted their first child, Rebecca Lee “Becky,” from the Children’s Home Society in Jacksonville.

The next year, Tom and Irv Meyers started their own law firm in Orlando: Meyers & Mooney. They were law partners and dear friends for the next forty years. Tom and Irv established a plaintiffs’ personal injury and workers’ compensation firm and were known throughout Florida for their tenacious advocacy and compassion for their clients. Within the first few years of the new law firm, Tom & Murf adopted their second child, Terrence “Kevin” also from CHS in Jacksonville.

During the mid-to-late 1960’s Tom got involved in politics with the Democratic party. (He did so after having voted for Richard Nixon (against JFK) in the1960 presidential election; the last time he cast a vote for a Republican for president). Tom mounted two unsuccessful campaigns for the Florida House of Representatives.

Thereafter, in 1968, Tom & Murf began building a house in Hidden Estates, a subdivision “way out” in Seminole County, where Irv Meyers also moved. Tom & Murf welcomed their third child, Thomas Edward “Tommy” into the world when Murf gave birth in 1969, just months before the family moved to their new home on Lisa Lane. Tom & Murf raised Becky, Kevin and Tommy, in the Lisa Lane home. All three kids graduated from Lyman High School before heading off to college. Tom & Murf then moved to Winter Park just a few hundred feet from Rollins College on Lake Virginia, and lived there from 1987 to 2023.

When the kids were very young, Tom & Murf discovered Siesta Key. Tom took his family yearly for vacations at the Surfrider Motel on Crescent Beach in Siesta Key. In the late 70’s, they bought their own place on Siesta Key located at the Point of Rocks overlooking the Gulf of Mexico at Crescent Beach. Many fond memories were created by Tom and his family at the home on Siesta Key.

Tom loved to travel. He and Murf traveled extensively to Europe, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. They visited China, in 1989 just weeks before the Tiananmen Square incident. Tom loved Switzerland, and they also traveled to Austria and Italy. Tom and Murf traveled with friends, family and with the Orlando Ski Club. Tom was an avid snow skier, having skied in Italy, Andora, Switzerland, France, Austria and in the American and Canadian Rockies. Tom finally hung up his ski boots just before his 79th birthday after a family ski trip to Park City, Utah.

Tom and Murf resided for decades in the College Quarter area of Winter Park, near Rollins College on Lake Virginia. He would often meet strangers strolling by their home, and invite them to dinner. Tom regularly invited trainees at the former Naval Training Center to join the

family for Thanksgiving dinner. No one was a stranger to Tom Mooney. If he knew your birthday, he sent a birthday card, sometimes even an anniversary card every year.

Sometime in the 1990’s Tom and Murf discovered a community in the North Georgia mountains near Highlands and Cashiers, North Carolina, and made their second home in Sky Valley. The house, located on the sixth green of the Sky Valley golf course had “million dollar views” of the valley and the mountains. Tom & Murf became “reverse snowbirds” relocating every Spring from the heat of Central Florida to the cool mountains, before returning to Winter Park for the late Fall and Winter. They made great friends in Sky Valley and became involved members of the Sky Valley Country Club. Tom and Murf both golfed regularly, and Tom even scored a hole-in-one once on the course.

Tom mentored Tommy when he began practicing law in Orlando. They worked for clients together for a few years before Tom retired from the practice of law. Tommy practices the same area of law as Tom, here in Orlando. Kevin practices law in Atlanta, primarily defending DUI cases. Becky owns numerous investment/rental properties and works as a dental hygienist in Pensacola.

Tom Mooney had a heart of gold and was a bit of a prankster. He would sometimes wear a fake/magnetic earring in the courtroom to get a rise out of people. He used a laugh machine on his phone calls with opposing claims adjusters and counsel. Tom was an empathetic and compassionate man. He could always find the good in people and made sure to tell them about it. He loathed injustice and cruelty. Tom once was found in contempt of court for refusing a judge’s order to treat his African American client less courteously than others in the courtroom. Tom also provided countless hours of pro bono legal work to the Children’s Home Society, inspired by his own adoptions. He always did his best. He will always be in our hearts.

Tom is survived by his wife, Murf, his brother, Robert Thomas “Bob” Mooney; his children Becky Mooney Poyner (Scott Poyner), Kevin Mooney (Theresa Brown Mooney) and Tommy Mooney (Nichole Mabry Mooney); and his grandchildren Luke Mooney, Cole Mooney, Harper Mooney, Farley Griner and Slone Griner.

Tom will be buried at Park Cemetery in Winter Park in a private ceremony handled by Baldwin Fairchild at Chapel Hill. The family will share plans for a celebration of life in the near future.