Thomas Gregory McGuire

McGUIRE, Thomas Gregory
Tom McGuire, former aviator, rifleman, hunter, and professor of literature, died peacefully June 16, the Bloomsday of James Joyce's Ulysses, in Van Nuys, California. The eldest son of Michael Patrick McGuire and Cecilia Waters McGuire, he was born in 1918 in Milbrae, California. He spent his childhood in Monterey, California, where he learned to hunt in the Santa Lucia Mountains of Big Sur. He graduated from Lowell High School in San Francisco. During World War II, he served as a P-38 flight instructor in Santa Rosa, California for the Army Air Corps, and he took pride that none of his trainees were killed while under his tutelage. In 1945 he was admitted to UCLA, where he received Baccalaureate and Master's degrees in English Literature. He subsequently taught at Los Angeles Valley College, where he retired as head of the English department. Tom's publications included critical books on Dante Alighieri and Herman Melville, as well as popular articles on hunting and aviation. An expert marksman, he was a member of the Order of St. Hubert, and of the P-38 WW2 Pilots Association. He was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia Dubin McGuire, a pioneering Los Angeles newswoman and the daughter of Broadway and Hollywood composer Al Dubin; by his son, Gregory McGuire, and by his daughter, Helen Marie McGuire, as well as by his sisters Marion Lewis, Helen McGuire, Geraldine Houston, Mary Lou Gilfoy, and Patricia Moran. and by his brother Michael "Bud" McGuire. Joyce Benson and his grand nephew, David Brooks were vigilant companions in his final days. He is survived by his daughter Anne McGuire, and by many loving nephews, nieces, and other family members, who mourn the loss of his powerful and creative presence. Services pending.