Tom Meyer

Tom Meyer, father of three, grandfather of two, spouse, beloved brother, uncle and proud Democrat, passed Tuesday, December 8, 2020, of complications from COVID-19.

Born to Joan of Arc Lavery in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 31, 1949, Tom was the descendent of Irish migrants from County Down and Russian Jews who fled the pogroms. He will be dearly missed by his children Logan (Erika), Erie (Gray), and Anna, his grandchildren Ruby and Francis, his spouse Debbie Willaman, his siblings Bill (Karen), Kathy (Eric) and Paul (Jenny), and the many family members, friends and comrades he cherished.

Tom volunteered for Shirley Chisholm's historic campaign during her visit to Ohio, and led the McGovern primary campaign at the Ohio State University, where he was a student. After a tight race where he bested Astronaut and American hero John Glenn, he was elected as a McGovern delegate to the 1972 Democratic Convention in Miami. Tom considered politics and social justice "the family business," and modeled his political life after his maternal grandfather, James Flavian Lavery, a local politician in Erie PA who worked for FDR on the Milk Committee to support children living in tenements, and later ran for Congress. Tom passionately fought for progressive causes and Democratic candidates his entire life, and with the help of an ICU social worker at The Ohio State University hospital, he even was able to cast an absentee ballot in the 2020 election for the entire Democratic slate.

He spent 33 years in the Ohio Statehouse, working for Governor Dick Celeste, and in the state senate keeping the republicans on their toes and helping interns learn their way. He fought to restore rights to Shawnee native tribes. He was proud to serve the people of Ohio, alongside colleagues who became family.

His interests were many and his collections vast and varied. Books, radios, political memorabilia, antiques, Ohioana, postcards, space ephemera, cosmonaut souvenirs, beat generation poetry, historic bricks and many thousands of flint chips, arrowheads and other stone tools collected over the years of roaming fields in Ohio. Every New Years Eve, he saved a jar of air to preserve a little bit of the year -- his collection reaches back to the 50s.

He loved babies, the very first cookie from a freshly baked batch (it had to be hot enough to burn his mouth), and teaching small children to chant "I'm a taxpayer and I demand my rights." Tom spent decades trying to re-create "the perfect turkey" prepared by Nancy Willaman in 1997, which he kept in a framed photo, which ultimately resulted in protests from his family and what was known as "the carcass rule." He loved old movies and musicals, and could guess which Ohio watershed you lived in based on how you pronounced "Ohio." He taught his children to never cross a picket line, and that the central defining fact of the 20th century was the victory of the proletariat over the fascists. Tom took great pride in his political memorabilia auctions held for various Democrats, especially Mary Jo Kilroy, Dick Celeste, and Mike Coleman, at the Short North Tavern. He loved fireworks and running from the police. He was not allowed in the state of Utah for outstanding and unspecified traffic offenses.

Tom met Debbie Willaman during the 'Neighborhood Wars' of the late 1970s, as large corporations like Battelle sought to evict poor residents of the Short North, bulldoze homes and commercialize property on the backs of the people who lived there. They successfully fought alongside the community to save the homes of countless residents and protect historic Harrison West and Victorian Village. Bonding over a shared sense of duty to serve their communities and fight for progress, Debbie and Tom went on to build a loving home, bringing a son and two daughters into the world and setting each on a path of equal dedication. Family and neighbors were one and the same, as the close-knit community on their block congealed as "The Forsythe Gang" and Harrison Ave friends (so named for the streets they lived on), a bond that has lasted 40 years. The annual ComFest in nearby Goodale Park still serves as a time when all of them -- plus many other friends and family -- come together. Many of their children attended their first ComFests as infants and now return each year to dance, volunteer and commune.

Tom loved Ohio. It's lands and rivers, its native peoples and history, its outsized impact in America. He loved Marblehead -- standing by the lighthouse, fishing with his children, looking out over Lake Erie, studying the glacial grooves, and talking with the locals. He knew the rivers, and canoed many of them. Special places include the Paint Creek valley in southern Ohio, and the Big Darby Creek in central Ohio.

After moving to the village of Marble Cliff, Tom spearheaded a ballot referendum that preserved a special part of Marble Cliff, Tarpy's Woods, from a ghastly development. Today Tarpy's Woods is a beloved, natural space full of life for all to enjoy.

Their home was shaped by so many of his passions -- his love of books, Beatles playing in the background, a substantial and thoroughly cataloged collection of arrowheads found from decades of hunting local fields. An inveterate family historian, Tom loved nothing more than to pull out photo albums of ancestors and share the stories of those who made their way across the Atlantic, west through Pennsylvania, to Ohio. A famously well-read student of history, he believed that the lessons of the past, especially the epic movements of the 60's, echo today in relevance and import. In the last two years, he found great satisfaction in meeting his first two grandchildren, Ruby and Francis.

Tom had numerous medical challenges, and with kidney failure in 2006, he went on dialysis. From the start of this journey, Tom held out hope for a donated kidney. In 2008, he gained the life saving gift of a healthy, young, gay kidney from a beloved friend, Terry Brown. While the kidney itself changed his life dramatically -- he claimed the biggest change was learning the transformative feeling of gratitude for an unfathomable gift. Tom has also insisted that since the kidney was 25 years younger than he was, that somehow Tom was younger too. Ask Logan the percentage, Tom made him do the math.

A '68 graduate of Revere High School in Richfield, Ohio, he was voted "Best Sense of Humor" in his class. He was famous for spearheading a mock Presidential convention that year, and at one point had the sergeant-at-arms remove a teacher from the convention floor, because he was not a student and therefore had no power. He cared for many friends he met in school, and remained extremely close for the rest of his life with "the boys," Mike Jones, John Hearty and Ned Viall.

His friendships, from the Forsythe Gang, the guys at "men's club," the "Irish mafia," hanging out at Acorn Bookshop and Mary Catherine's Antiques, those he met in yoga class, conspirators who knew him as "swordfish," the comrades who worked alongside him in policy and politics, the Ohio press corps, the many dog-walking neighbors who knew him as "Shoni's human," and many, many others gave his life color and joy.

Stricken with COVID-19 in April, Tom survived the ordeal. He described the coronavirus as so devastating that he wouldn't even wish it on a bad republican, and urged everyone to, "for the love of God," wear masks and be safe. The long-haul effects of the coronavirus plagued him throughout the year, and he fought as best he could.

To honor Tom's, and our family's, concerns about the coronavirus, there will be no in person memorial at this time. The family hopes to host a memorial celebration next summer at Goodale Park in Columbus, if it is safe and sensible.

Tom's beloved mother, who died when he was only 23, taught him to always give money to people who asked, because it could be an angel testing him. He always did. In lieu of flowers, please give money to the next person who asks.