Thomas Maguire

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Thomas Maguire. Courtesy photo.

Thomas (Tom) Grover Maguire passed away peacefully at the hospital in St. Helena, California, on Aug. 24, 2022. He had just celebrated his 85th birthday.

Tom had a large and loving family. He was preceded in death by his parents, Jim and Fran; stepdad, Herman; brother, Jack; sister, Diane; wives, Annette and Helen; and his daughter, Rochelle.

He was married to first wife, Annette, the mother of his four children, Dan, Rochelle, Natalie and Terry, for 20 years, and to Helen his wife of 25 years.

Tom’s family included sons and daughters-in-law, Larry, Jeffrey, David, Michelle, and Mia. He also was blessed with four grandchildren: Jake, Jeremy, Joshua and Dylan.

Tom was a native San Franciscan and worked in broadcasting in the San Francisco Bay Area and across the country. He gained notoriety for his inventive advertising and promotional campaigns including the use of a local celebrity to brand his television station, Channel 36 as “The Perfect Thirty-Six.”

Much to the delight and occasional chagrin of his children, Tom became a local celebrity in his own right as he appeared in several long running television commercials in the Bay Area. Tom’s last television job was in Florida’s capital city of Tallahassee, where he ran the local NBC station. He retired back to Northern California, to his beloved Clear Lake.

Tom was an avid reader, and was interested in news, and politics from an early age. Through his job he had the good fortune of getting to meet many newsmakers of the day, including presidential candidates from Kennedy to Clinton. He famously relinquished his downtown San Jose office for then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, and later was able to joke with him about it when Reagan was in higher office.

Tom was a long-time member of A.A. and served in several leadership positions, including as trustee. He often cited the profound effect that the organization had on his life and his family.

A funeral mass for Tom will take place at Blessed Sacrament Church in Tallahassee, Florida on Saturday, Sept. 24, at 11 a.m.

Tom, his son and grandson were stricken by a neurological disorder, Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, or CMT, and donations to the foundation in his memory are welcomed: www.cmtfr.org.