Tom Donnelly (2015)
He was born the day after Christmas in 1952, and was the seventh of nine children. His father was a former miler and cross country runner at Notre Dame in the late 1930s. His mother was a star tennis player in Queens, New York. Surprisingly, Tom Donnelly never did a lick of physical or athletic activity until he was 25 years old. That’s when, during the summer of 1976, he took up running in order to lose weight and to get some focus in his life.
Tom ran his first marathon in 1977, finishing the Skylon Marathon in 2:59:45, thus qualifying for the Boston Marathon by a mere 15 seconds. He never looked back, eventually running more than 30 marathons, including Boston a dozen or more times.
Although Tom would be the first to tell you that back in the day he considered himself a middle of the pack runner, his PR of 2:35:10 on a windy Skylon course, and his being a consistent 32-minute 10k runner, belies his claim. He was good enough to win the Run For Your Life 20K in 1981 with a time of 1:09, beating more than 400 runners in the process—or more than 600 if you count the 50-plus relay teams he also beat.
From 1987 until 1999, Tom was president of the Greater Buffalo Track Club. He soon discovered he had the ability to be quite an organizer and leader in the local running community. His unique sense of humor and his ready laughter, combined with his completely unselfish encouragement that he gave to any runner no matter their ability, endeared him to all who got to know him. Throughout his running career, which spanned nearly 40 years, he always took the time to listen to and offer advice to anyone who sought him out.
In 2004, Tom became race director for Buffalo’s Turkey Trot, the oldest continuously run road race in North America. Being the tireless promoter of Buffalo, and with his innovative ideas, Tom quickly grew the race from 5,000 participants. The race is now a “must-do event” to start Thanksgiving for many runners and non-runners alike, so much so that the race has to be capped at 14,000.
In 2009, Tom became the much loved president of Checkers Athletic Club, the largest running club in Western New York. In 2010, he led the way in forming the Western New York Running Hall of Fame, of which he became president and the race director of its annual 5k race. Still, apparently with time on his hands, Tom became Hall of Fame member John Beishline’s right hand man in handling the Buffalo Marathon. After John’s death in December 2013, Tom took over as race director and the race prospered under his leadership.
Tom was a man who truly loved his four children; Paul, Alison, Patrick, and Rebecca, as well as his wife, Julie, his brothers and sisters, his friends, and all things Buffalo. After Tom died so unexpectedly on November 15, 2014, most who knew him cried when they learned of his untimely passing. They had all lost a beautiful friend.
