Timothy E. Reilly

The Talker in a Big Family
Timothy E. Reilly was the toastmaster, the speechmaker, the mayor of the family - the gregarious and easygoing fourth of six children in a clan that counts 48 first cousins on his mother's side alone.

He made it his business to know them all; and he loved nothing more, his siblings say, than giving everyone else a great time.

A vice president at Marsh & McLennan, Mr. Reilly spent little on himself.

At 40, he lived in what had once been his grandmother's one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn Heights, still furnished with her old couch, table and chairs. He skied, flawlessly, in boots held together with duct tape.

He spent his money on his family and on taking people out to dinner and picking up the tab at the bar.

After he died, his sister, Maureen, created a Web page in his honor. The message board brims with letters from cousins and friends. In one, a cousin recalls how Mr. Reilly had saved him from suicide, then helped him through his hospitalization, regularly driving 90 minutes each way after work to bring clothes, books, cigarettes and the desire to live.

"His outpouring of love was the life preserver that kept me afloat in my hour of greatest need and deepest pain," the cousin wrote.

He added later, "He made me believe in myself. He made me happy to be alive."