Thomas Joseph Deleandro Jr.

Thomas was born in Pennsylvania, the oldest of 6 children. He contracted polio at a very young age. He recovered, but wore a leg brace for his entire life. Despite that, his parents would strongly encourage him, motivating him with things like “come on, you can do this!” when he was learning to walk. He learned responsibility at an early age, whoever came home from school first had to get dinner started. A favorite family card game was hand-and-foot.

Tom was very close to his sister Debra. They were the two oldest and bonded the most closely. He was always there for her and supported her and she for him.

Tom had a thirst for knowledge. In high school he was in an advanced Latin class. In the Spring of 1970 the class embarked on an 11 day seminar to Rome. They visited the Coliseum, the Sistine Chapel, and St Peter’s, among other historical sites. The highpoint of the trip came on Easter morning when they joined the throng in St. Peter’s square to see Pope Paul VI and hear his Easter message.

Tom attended Ohio State University. He enjoyed it so much he stayed for almost 8 years before graduating in 1977. His first job was in Information Technology at Continental Bank in Chicago. He enjoyed that so much he stayed for 14 years until he was outsourced to ISSC, a part of IBM. In less, than a year he was back at Continental Bank, by which time had been acquired by Bank of America. He stayed with Bank of America until he retired in late 2016.

Tom was well respected while at all 3 companies. His ability to communicate with and relate to people on a personal basis was magnetic. Even though he was highly intelligent he never used it to dominate people. Tom’s personality and use of humor brought down barriers to moving forward on various projects. In one meeting, he avoided potential bloodshed by subtly moving a pair of scissors out of the reach of an attendee who was having some serious tension with their manager. Tom was always the calming influence, he was never flustered.

Tom’s sense of humor was well known. He enjoyed life and felt that humor was a part of it. While at Continental Bank he was put on the “Fast Track” program, which exposed him to many different areas of I.T. in short periods of time. He often joked (out of ear-shot of management) that it was really the “Side Track Program”.

Later in his career Tom was heavily involved in efforts to define a global financial system called Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), more specifically a part called X12. He spent most of the last 20 years of his career working on it and the various committees it comprised. He traveled for it quite extensively, sometimes globally. At one point he was in Hong Kong. He was amazed at the many hi-rise buildings under construction which used bamboo as scaffolding. In 2016, for his EDI efforts he received the Edward A. Guilbert Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tom moved to Chicago in 1978 to work at Continental Bank. One of the unexpected benefits was the food of that great city. More specifically, was the wide variety of pizza restaurants, Chicago was a mecca for deep dish pizza. Giordano’s, Connie’s, Uno’s, Due’s and many more. His favorite may have been Gino’s East, due to their sausage pizza having a sausage patty that covered the entire pizza. Yum! Chicago also had many Chinese restaurants he enjoyed, but probably his favorite was in the suburb of Palatine, a restaurant called Heng Wing’s owned by the Moy family. Mary Moy was an excellent host and a good friend. She made a potent cocktail called the Zombie, which she would top off with 151 Rum. One was usually enough for the evening.

Tom was a picky eater. Almost no vegetables were tolerated. If he saw something in a dish that he couldn’t identify he would not eat it. He would call such items “UFOs” (Unidentified Food Objects) and refuse to touch them. He was so happy when he found a McDonald’s when he was in Hong Kong.

Tom was an excellent cook. He knew what he liked, so he’d make it rather than having someone else cook. Tom’s holiday meals were legendary with friends and family. They included all the trimmings, roast turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, homemade cinnamon rolls, corn soufflé (his specialty). This was followed by triple, or sometimes quadruple desserts, Chocolate cake, cheesecake, homemade dark chocolate covered toffee (Bob’s concoction), frango mints, etc.

On the 4th of July Tom would always make a jello mold. It was in the shape of the U.S. and included alternating layers of jello and ice cream, red, white and blue. He also enjoyed making chocolate chip cookies. Originally, this was a 70+ year old recipe from Bob’s mother. Tom enhanced it by increasing the chip-to-dough ratio. Tom’s spaghetti sauce was exceptional and well regarded within the family, it was his Italian side taking over.

Tom lived in Chicago until the end of 2009, where he shared a house with Bob. One day Bob said, “what do you think about moving to Las Vegas?”. Bob’s parents had lived in Las Vegas since 1986, and he wanted to be closer to them as they were getting older. Tom got more excited about it than Bob. So, plans were made, a house was purchased, and the move occurred. Tom moved out in late 2009, followed by Bob a few months later. No more snowy winters with the challenge of navigating ice and snow with a leg brace.

Tom really enjoyed the casinos. He was quite lucky too, with many multi-thousand dollar jackpots over the years. He would say “In Las Vegas, if you wanted to go to a movie, bowling, a restaurant, or a concert, you were usually going to a casino”.

Tom wasn’t especially a dog person to start, but Bob was. Over the years, he became a devoted dog parent to 4 dogs, Nicholai, Alexandra (Alex), Lexi, and Kodi. All were of the sled dog variety (Siberian Huskies, an Alaskan Malamute, and a mix of the two). They all had excellent temperaments, just like Tom, except maybe Alex, who was a little psycho. He loved them all deeply.

For both houses Tom lived in, he threw his heart and soul into them. The Elk Grove house had several additions added on over the years, all done with Tom’s meticulous attention to detail. You couldn’t tell where the additions were as they were so well integrated into the existing house. This included the backyard deck which mirrored the shape of the addition it was connected to. Tom would have made a good architect. The Las Vegas house had Tom’s mark on it as well. The interior touches were not as obvious as an addition, but they included an office design, closet and bathroom remodels, and a garage makeover. Tom was the most proud of the backyard pool. It perfectly complemented the backyard. He used it whenever he could.

The holidays were a special time in Tom and Bob’s house. Tom would bring in the spirit of the holiday he was decorating for. At Christmas almost every room showed signs of the season, whether it was a swirling snow globe on the kitchen island, or an illuminated miniature church on an end-table or the animatronic caroling dolls singing the twelve days of Christmas as a round.

Tom was a big fan of the Beatles. He felt that every one of their albums showed how they had grown and changed as a musical group. In the eighties and nineties Tom attended many concerts, Dan Fogelberg, Alan Parsons Project, Supertramp, Pat Benatar, John Cougar Mellencamp, Heart, Jethro Tull among many others.

Tom’s stereo evolved over the years. His Penny’s MCS stereo was a starting point. As his knowledge and income level grew, so did his taste in equipment. As the quality of his system grew, so did his appreciation of music. He truly enjoyed playing songs for guests, songs they had heard before, and seeing their amazed reactions to songs they thought they knew. Tom’s all-time favorite songs were Hotel California by the Eagles, Tucson Arizona by Dan Fogelberg, Chloe by Elton John, and Turn the Page by Bob Seger. Hotel California was “haunting”, Tucson Arizona was captivating for Dan’s vocals, Chloe was emotionally sad and haunting and Turn the Page touched something deep in Tom.

After Tom’s passing many condolence cards were received. Some people wrote of their fond memories of Tom from Continental Bank. Others were from people who knew him in high school. Perhaps the most succinct and touching was a next door neighbor from Chicago who wrote “The best neighbor ever!” on their card.

Thomas Joseph Deleandro was a wonderful human being. He embraced life and all it offered. He touched many lives during his time here. Thomas will be remembered by those who knew him for the great man he was. He will be greatly missed, but our memories of him will live on.