JOHN C. "JACK" THOMAS

THOMAS, John C. "Jack" "Our hearts are not big enough to hold all the love we have for you." With these words, we said our goodbye on October 1 to a husband and father whose love for his family was boundless. Second to family was his devotion to The Boston Globe where he spent more than 50 years as reporter, editor, columnist, TV Critic and ombudsman, though he preferred the title, writer. It is long form journalism that mattered most to him. Whether living on the streets of Boston during a cold winter in order to humanize those who are homeless, creating lyrical profiles of his heroes such as Julia Child, Dave McKenna, Charlie Austin, David McCord, Willie Pep, Bennie Wiley or Margaret Chase Smith, or writing stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, Jack brought to his craft a level of detail that made the readers feel they too were there. After a terminal cancer diagnosis, Jack sat down and wrote his final piece for The Boston Globe Magazine, which garnered response from all over the country and beyond. A story teller to the core, Jack enjoyed intimate dinner parties where he would cook his favorite recipe of Chicken Piccata and pesto linguine and regale guests with stories gleaned from a lifetime of interviewing people or simply plucked from his memories of basic training at Parris Island. Jack's home is a virtual library where hundreds of books are catalogued and stacks of New Yorker magazines rest on tabletops, not merely for show for he has read them all. Any trip to New York included a stay at the Algonquin Hotel where he would meet his companion for drinks under the clock before dining beneath the painting his idols of the Round Table, after which it was off to the Blue Note for jazz. As for another source of joy - his beloved roses - some found a new home in his final creation completed September 9th, an additional garden designed to make the entrance to his Cambridge residence even more welcoming. Family members, wife Geraldine Denterlein, children, Faith Tracy and her husband Joseph Tracy, Jennifer Rando and her husband Robert Rando, John Patrick Thomas and his fiancé, Gloria Dabek, grandchildren Ryan, Tessa, Cameron and Nolan Tracy, Phoebe and Jack Rando, to whom he was known as "Mr. Thomas" , former wife, Emy Thomas, sisters, Ramona Egan (Edward Egan) and Charlotte Lorandeau and nieces and nephews will grieve privately at the church of his youth, All Saints in Dorchester. A memorial service honoring his life will be held at a later date. Donations in his memory may be made to The Tom Winship scholarship Fund, Northeastern Univeristy, https://giving.northeastern.edu/live/profiles/1184-tom-winship-scholar-in-journalism, a fund he co-created to honor his mentor, the late editor of The Boston Globe or Brantwood Camp https://brantwood.org/donate/, a non profit camp for youngsters who otherwise would not have the opportunity, where Jack spent many happy summers as a camper and counselor.