Thomas Victor Reilly

Thomas Victor Reilly

8/9/1943 – 12/15/2025

Born in Anniston Alabama in 1943, Thomas Victor Reilly was the first son of Victor Joseph Reilly and Lucille Viola Reilly (nee Maloney.) Following Pearl Harbor, Victor, a chemical engineer, enlisted in the US Navy and was assigned to work in the war effort as a part of the civilian infrastructure and had been assigned to Anniston. Victor’s brother John served in the US Navy in the Pacific and his adopted cousin Howard Rosenthal, who was raised from childhood as a brother, served in the US Army during WWII. Naturally gregarious, Tom, or TV as he was also known, moved from his birthplace in Alabama to Buffalo New York, on to Oakridge Tennessee, then Aiken South Carolina, and finally in 1957 to Memphis Tennessee. In the 1950’s the family had a subscription to the Encyclopedia Britannica, which Tom set as a project to read, as each monthly installment arrived.

In Memphis he was the manager of the high school baseball team, an actor in school plays (playing the 12th juror, a pivotal role as a Polish immigrant, in 11 Angry Men) and was a finalist for the golden gloves’ championship. His maternal grandfather Harold “Harry’ Malone had been a professional boxer in Saint Louis and in the southern frontier 1900-1920. Tom maintained a lifelong insider's love of both sports. He was a keeper of family stories from the greatest generation, the frontier, and of Irish and German immigration dating back as far as 1790’s. A graduate with honors from Catholic High School in Memphis, Tom went on to Washington University in Saint Louis on a full national merit scholarship, where he studied art and architecture and began collecting and restoring vintage cars. As an undergraduate, he found work repairing British, Italian and German sports cars.

His twin passions for travel and photography were supported by employment with Trans World Airlines and Amtrak, where he traveled to all 50 states, 5 continents as well as to remote islands in the Pacific, often traveling with little more than his camera bag. Immediately after the opening afforded by Glasnost, Tom traveled the entire length of the Trans-Siberian railroad, across 8 time zones from Moscow to Vladivostok, photographing rural scenes and local people along the way. In Greece he was a hands-on participant and photographer for archeological digs. Many of these photographs were featured in a series of one man shows at Total Travel Art Gallery in Alameda, which he managed as a center to mentor and encourage young and emerging photographers. In Oakland he found a home working at the Walter Bennett Camera Shop on Lake Shore Drive. Walter Bennett was a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer of US Presidents. At home in any kitchen, Tom holds degrees from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in food services. He could cook up a fine meal and regale everyone at the table with stories from the Galapagos to Vladivostok and family stories dating back to before the war of 1812 on the German side.

A proud Southerner, of all the places Tom had traveled to and had come to know, Aiken, was the one place that he chose to retire with his wife of 42 years, Palmer “Pam” Curnow Reilly. Prior to Aiken, Tom and Pam had lived for most of their adult lives in Alameda California where Pam had a managerial career with Wells Fargo Bank, and later Kaiser Permanente and Tom pursued his passion for travel, and sailing.

Tom Reilly died at home on December 15, 2025 after a long illness surrounded by family. In addition to his loving wife Pam, Tom is survived by sisters Linda Marie Reilly, Mary Lou Helms, brother Terry O'Reilly and brother-in-law James Curnow, along with 8 cousins; Dianna Kies, Kathy Sherby, John Reilly, David Reilly, Steve Rosenthal, Ricky Rosenthal, Victor Rosenthal and Jan Rosenthal. His five nieces and nephews are Maya Hedstrom Reilly Brenner, Cheryl Beth Helms, Christina Helms, Keane Pois and Hunter Pois. His grand nieces and nephews are Maxwell Hamelton Nolan Brenner, Leo Victor Brenner and Alyssa Grace Bell. COLE FUNERAL HOME 1544 UNIVERSITY PKWY (118 BYPASS) AIKEN, SC 29801 803-648-7175. Please sign the online registry at www.colefuneralhomeinc.net.