TOM DEMALI
Memories of
On the morning of 11/3/19 I received an email from my good friend Tom DeMali. It was from his email address, and it was all in CAPS, as he usually did because of his affliction with Parkinson's disease.
But, it wasn't from Tom. As I read the short message it became evident who it was from. Linda, his wife, wrote that Tom had passed away the night before.
I was not surprised, because the last time that our good friend, Jim Harpley, and I went to see him, at home, he was not doing very well. But I was naturally stunned. It is a feeling that is hard to describe, which I'm sure that many of you reading this have had.
Needless to say that feeling stayed with me for quite awhile, and it is still embedded in my memory from that morning.

I knew Tom for a long time. I believe I met him on the public bus line when both of us were working in downtown Akron. He was working at Goodrich, where he did for quite a few years, and I was working for Danner Press/Akron Typesetting. We both lived in Ellet, but he was living in a house with his parents and sisters a little southeast of where I was at with my family.
He graduated from Ellet High School, and I graduated to Archbishop Hoban High School I lived a block away from Ellet, but went to Hoban.

The more I got to know him, the more each of our friends joined the group. Tom liked to fish, but he was also an avid golfer. We golfed together quite a bit. I was not into the fishing, but I did go to a fly-in lake in northern Canada with him and his father, and brother in law. It was a great trip, but I almost fell out of the airplane. That is another story!
Tom and I both liked to smoke cigars, and have a couple of beers now and then after golf.

We both got married to women who knew each other from working together at City Hospital. And we both got divorced from those two women. He remarried. I almost remarried a couple of times, but didn't.

Tom was into sports. He ran track at Ellet. And we both were Cleveland Indians and Browns fans. We had season passes in the 70's, and 80's with a couple of other friends to Browns games. Every Sunday home game we would head up to Cleveland. And we also had the distinction of going to the first ever Monday Night Football game which they won. 

Tom worked at Goodrich who became Michelin Uniroyal Goodrich (MUG) until he was laid off. And I ended up working at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company until I took a voluntary (Sort of) retirement after 36 years of service.

Tom got remarried to his wife Linda, who incidentally worked in the same department as I did (Joe Buz) at Goodyear. 
Tom leaves his sisters Bonnie, Judy, Janice, and Debbie. He had a daughter Kathy, and sons Tom, and David from previous marriage. He leaves 8 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren in total combinationof the entire family.

I am going to miss him very  much even though we didn't see as much of each other since we first met.
But I will never forget the good times that I had with him, and all of our friends.
Even up until a couple of weeks before he passed away he would send me emails about the Browns. They were short, and in caps , but he still would watch the games, and was still interested in them. But most of the time he was complaining when they lost.

We called him " Tommy D", and he liked it! TOMMY D  R.I.P. 

There are a few pictures below.  I plan on adding more. If anyone he knew has any more pictures please send them to Geezersniteout@aol.com
From L-R are Buzz Cincurak, Don Hayden, and Tom DeMali. The three had been friends for a long time. The picture was taken in Las Vegas at the Golden Nugget. Tom was with Linda. I was with the Geezers, and Don came from California. From L-R are Jim Harpley, and Tom. The three of us went to a Cleveland Indians game. Jim was visiting from Nashville, Tennessee.This picture was taken a long time ago when Tom and I were still working. Tom used to come to the clubs around Goodyear and hang with us. L-R are Buzz Cincurak, Jim Fish, and Tom. Here is a picture of Tommy D at the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan where we stopped on our way to Canada to the fly-in lake.Tom is at the Anchor on the big bridge with his former father, and brother in law. The three of them along with myself (Buzz) went on the trip. And yes, as I said in the memoriam this was the plane that was to take us somewhere in the wilderness, drop us off, and come back a week later. Yes, there was beer loaded on the plane.Here is Tom taking a look back at me as I may have let out a yell as the door I was sitting next to became a jar. It was not a funny joke at the time. Tom kept up on the news while we were in isolation even though it may have been maybe a week or so old. Tom was famous for his cat naps. We were getting up pretty early every morning. Even though he was doing what he loved he still needed to catch a few winks. This is a picture of Tom doing what he loved best, next to golf. We were in North Canada at that fly-in lake. Here he is on our boat holding up the Northern Pike that he caught. They are mean.My cousin Wayne Cincurak ran a Valet Service on the side that he took over from a friend. We would park cars now and then for parties in Fairlawn. One company downtown was having a Grand Opening, and wanted us to dress as circus performers. Tom was a Tiger.Here were all of the car parkers. From L-R Wayne Cincurak was the Ring Master, Bruce Wilcox, a Clown, Tom the Tiger, and Buzz Cincurak, another Clown. The pictures were taken by the late Tom Tipton, a friend from Goodyear.The next two pictures are from birthday celebrations. Tom, and I (Buzz) had BDays 8 days apart. Tom 9/2 & Me 9/10. Now, and then we would celebrate them together. This pic was taken at Tom & Linda's twinplex. This picture was taken at a restaurant/bar called the Holiday Lounge on Hillbish in the Ellet area. Someone hired a dancer to entertain us. If you can't tell Tom approved! The next 6 picture were taken on March 12, 2018. In the pics are Me (Buzz Cincurak), Jim Harpley, and Tom. Close friends. Jim was in town from Nashville, TN. We were visiting Tom.In this pic I was attempting to take a Selfie. I am not too good at it and Tom was cracking up. Jim was in wonderment. OK, I succeeded in this attempt of getting all three of us in it. Tom was amazed. Jim was posing!I should have been happy with the last Selfie coming out, but I had to try it again with just Tom, and I. I cracked Tom up again!No more Selfies! This is a good picture of Jim, and Tom. Too serious! Another picture of Tom, and I. A real picture. I think he was getting tired of of me taking all of these pictures, but that's what I do.
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This page was last updated: March 24, 2020