Thomas Edward Mooney, 84, a resident of Bettendorf, died on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 19, 2011, at the Clarissa C. Cook Hospice House, Bettendorf, from complications associated with a stroke.
Funeral services and a Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, 417 Main Street, Davenport, Thursday, June 23 at 10:00 am. Burial will take place in Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Davenport. Visitation will begin Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at the Halligan-McCabe-DeVries Funeral Home, 614 Main Street, downtown Davenport, with a prayer service at 3 p.m. The family will continue greeting friends after the prayer until 7:00 p.m.
Tom was the son of Francis and Grace (Schupert) Mooney of Chillicothe, Illinois. Mr. Mooney was born July 24, 1926 in Chillicothe, Illinois. He was united in marriage to his beloved, Mary Susan Howard, of Lacon, Illinois, in June 1951 until her death in 1998. They had 6 children, 11 grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Thomas E. Mooney served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific theatre in World War II. At the end of the war, he briefly attended the University of Utah’s Naval ROTC program. He then received his Bachelor of Science degree from Northern Illinois University in 1949, and a Master’s of Science Degree from Bradley University in 1953. During his college and young adult years, he was an outstanding athlete; participating in collegiate basketball and track programs as well as semi-professional football and baseball in the Peoria area.
After several years of teaching and coaching in high schools in Chillicothe and Farmington, Illinois he worked as District Manager for Equitable Life Assurance Society in Ottawa, Illinois from 1960 to 1970, then as Agency Manager in Davenport from 1970 until his retirement from Equitable. As a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), he also worked for the Molyneaux Insurance Company. During his career in the insurance industry, he continued involvement in athletics as a football and basketball referee and coaching in various youth programs.
Upon his retirement from the insurance business, he returned to a second career in high school athletics as the Athletic Director at Davenport (Iowa) Assumption from 1988 to 2000. In those 13 years as Athletic Director, the Assumption athletic program won 28 team championships. He remained an active booster of Assumption High School after his retirement from that second career. He believed strongly in the potential of athletics to help young people develop strength of character and responsibility.
Always an active member of his community, he served on school and parish boards in Ottawa and Davenport. He served as a Lector and was involved in many projects at St. Anthony’s. In recent years, he volunteered at Center for Active Seniors, Inc. (CASI), helping many other active senior’s in the community with their financial affairs.
He lived a full and independent life, committed to the betterment of his community. When he committed himself to a project, he always put the full strength of his considerable talents to the task. He was a wonderful father and grandfather and devoted to his family.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Davenport Assumption Athletic Program or to the Greater Iowa Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Those left to honor his memory include his children: Patrick H. (Renee Park) Mooney, Lexington, KY; Ann (Ed) Durdan, Ottawa, Illinois; Michael T. (Nancy Brown) Mooney, Augusta, Maine; Carol (Brent) Hagen, Denison, Iowa; Timothy J. (Donna) Mooney, Ames, Iowa; and Kathy (Tim) Whitty, Bettendorf. Also surviving are his grandchildren; Chris and Shannon Mooney; Renee, Kara (Joe) Jackson, and Eddie (Sara) Durdan; Kevin Mooney; Erin and Katie Hagen; Nick and Hannah Whitty; one great grandson, Connor Durdan; his sisters, Mary Ellen O’Connell and Barbara (Dick) Davis. He is well-remembered by his many friends in the community, especially by his dear friend, Mary Long, of Muscatine, Iowa.
He was preceded in death by his brothers, Patrick and Jack, his sister Virginia and a grandson, Kelan Park Mooney. Online remembrances and condolences may be expressed to the family by visiting Tom’s obituary at www.hmdfuneralhome.com.
My mother, Josephine “Jo” Boylan McCarthy, was born on a Chillicothe farm in 1926, the same year as Tom Mooney, and graduated from the Academy of Our Lady in 1943, so she was just a freshman when Tom’s sister Mary Ellen Mooney was a senior. But I am sure Mom, and her best friend BettyLou Ernst, a couple years older and also an Academy girl, knew Mary Ellen and her brother Tom, since their mother Grace Mooney and Mom’s mother Clara Wilhelm Boylan were very good friends for many, many hard years of the 1920’s and 1930’s in Chillicothe, Illinois. In fact, I met Grace Mooney in 1977 when she attended my grandmother Clara’s 80th birthday party at our home in Los Angeles, California. Grace had the misfortune to miss her step into our sunken living room, and went flying – I ran to her and picked her up off the carpet, and soothed her, and by the grace of God she was OK. Grace was so sweet and composed — It was February and she had a beautiful red suit jacket on, and she and I sat and talked during the birthday dinner that my mother Jo had prepared for Grandma and the crowd. My mother’s father (who died young in 1933) Arch Boylan’s older brother John “Jack” Boylan had married Lucelia “Celia” Mooney in about 1910, and I believe Celia was the sister of Grace’s husband Frank Mooney. Jack and Celia had many children — they were my mother Jo’s first cousins through her Uncle Jack and Aunt Celia — and they would have been Mary Ellen and Tom Mooney’s first cousins too. They are all gone now in 2016, but some of their children still live in Illinois. Brother Tom and sister Mary Ellen sound like they were wonderful people and parents, with all the characteristic values that Chillicothe children were raised with — kindness especially. I am honored that I got to meet their mother Grace Mooney when I was young. God bless all of Grace’s descendants — I am sure she and my grandmother Clara are having a grand time together in heaven, reminding us daily to be kind to one another.