Thomas F. Mullaney, Jr., 85, of West Hartford, CT, died on Monday, August 26, 2024, from complications after open heart surgery. Born in Chicago in February 1939, the son of Thomas F. Mullaney, Sr. and Elizabeth (Andrews) Mullaney. He is survived by his sister, Harriet of Denver, CO; his son, Thomas M. of New York City, NY; his daughter, Lauren S. of West Hartford, CT; his daughter-in-law, Lori Gordon and his grandson, Maxwell of West Hartford, CT. He also leaves his lady friend, Gene Schaefer Flynn of Evanston, IL. Tom’s wife, Mary Catherine Smith Mullaney, died in 2018.
A Chicago native for almost forty years, Tom was a graduate of Loyola Academy and Beloit College magna cum laude. After college he attended Navy Officer Candidate School and was commissioned an ensign. After a temporary assignment to the USS WASP (CVS18) he was permanently assigned to USS HISSEM (DER400) on which he served as communications officer and operations officer. During his time on HISSEM, the ship was deployed to The Cuban Missile Crisis (Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal), the search for the USS THESHER, and Operation Deepfreeze (Antarctic Service Medal) during which the ship circumnavigated the globe. In 2011 Beloit College bestowed its Distinguished Service Award on Tom.
After the Navy Tom entered Northwestern University as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and earned a Master’s degree in economics. He then joined The First National Bank of Chicago as a management trainee and worked in the trust department and credit card launch before joining the bond department as a municipal bond underwriter and trader. He worked in the New York City underwriting office and managed the municipal bond division before serving as corporate planner for a year and then managed the public funds division. During this time Tom earned an MBA at the University of Chicago. He had an additional assignment as executive director of the Illinois Fiscal Commission for Governor Bill Thompson. In Chicago he was a member of The Municipal Bond Club, The Bond Club, The Chicago Athletic Association and the Saddle & Cycle Club.
In 1977 he and his family moved to West Hartford and Tom took the position at Hartford National Bank as senior vice president and head of the Bond and Money Market Group responsible for trading, asset and liability management, discount brokerage and government finance & banking. He then became head of the National Banking Division for two years before managing the Investment Services Group consisting of investment management, trust administration, bond department, discount brokerage and government finance & banking eventually for the Shawmut Banks of Connecticut and Massachusetts as executive vice president.
Tom was active in many Hartford area organizations and served as a director of the Connecticut Policy Expenditure Council, Citizens Committee for Effective Government (the Schoen Commission), Hartford Seminary, Greater Hartford Chamber of Commerce, Capitol Housing Corporation (Chairman), Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center, Connecticut Development Authority (Vice Chairman), The 1892 Club (President), American School for the Deaf (Investment Committee Chair) and a fellow of the American Leadership Forum. He was a long-time treasurer of Riverfront Recapture and twice its Chairman. He was a member of The Hartford Golf Club.
In 1993 he retired early and founded an investment advisory firm which soon became Mullaney, Keating & Wright, Inc. now headquartered in West Hartford.