Tom Fitzgerald

Tom Fitzgerald, 67, died Aug. 27, 2022, at his home in Colonial Heights.

He was born Donald Thomas Fitzgerald Jr. on Oct. 11, 1954, in Chicago, son of the late Skip and Shirley Dean Crouse Fitzgerald.

Survivors include a sister, Michelle Fitzgerald Clark, of Windsor; a brother, Joe Fitzgerald, of Harrisonburg; a son, Logan Thomas Fitzgerald, and two grandchildren.

He is also survived by his dear friend, Andrea Hellyer, of Colonial Heights, who cared for him during his final illness.

In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by a brother, Mark Fitzgerald, who died in 2019.

Tom joined the Army after high school and later worked for UPS, retiring after 30 years. He had also worked for the Hopewell plant that produced Kepone, sickening its workers and closing the James River to fishing in the 1970s.

A recovering alcoholic, Tom served as AA sponsor to more than 100 souls beginning their own recovery. It was his hobby and his calling during most of the second half of his life.

Tom’s mother was washing her mother-in-law’s hair at the kitchen sink  in 1961 when a football came crashing through the window above the sink. It was never established whether it was purely an accident, or a prank gone wrong. Regardless, grandmother Harriet Fitzgerald suggested that Tom Fitzgerald would never have to worry about drowning because he was born to hang.

But cancer got him first.