Thomas James DeAngelo

Tom DeAngelo was born on April 25, 1953, in Des Moines, Iowa, as the eldest son of Mary Rose (Carpino) DeAngelo and Jim Robert DeAngelo. He died at home on August 22, 2024, at the age of 71 from ALS.
Tom's two daughters, Samantha (Korey) Garvey and Josephine (Ben Oman) DeAngelo are the proudest accomplishments of his life. When they were little girls, Tom shared his creativity with his daughters by illustrating their imaginative stories, and as they got older, he shared his love of athletics with them by coaching their softball teams. As adults, he taught them that worrying doesn't help anything, but doing something may, that strength is all about mindset, to never be ashamed to be a bit of a goofball, to pursue your passions, to believe in yourself, to be open to others' differences, and to take full responsibility for your journey through life.
Tom is preceded in death by his little brother, Mark and survived by his two daughters, his partner Janet and their dog, Maia, his sister Vicki (Bob) Ligouri, his brother Tony (Amy) DeAngelo, and his nieces and nephews Gina, Angela, Nick, Michael, Katherine, and Matthew. Tom is also survived by his brand-new baby grandson, Cormac, who had the loving guidance and protection of his Grandpa Tom from Heaven during the two days leading up to and including his birth.
In addition to his love of family, Tom had an eclectic range of interests. With ease, he could draw an accurate map of all the countries of the world on the back of a napkin, tell you the names of all the rivers in the world (many of which he had fished), spell any word in the dictionary, or sing all the lyrics to Sixteen Tons (the song his mother said he sang to himself as a little boy). He absorbed knowledge - from books, school, people, travel, and living life.
Tom's wide and curious assortment of interests and talents manifested early and often throughout his life. He became the Franklin Junior High chess champion, lived in a barn while interning as a young architecture student in Colorado, fly fished with buddies throughout the US and Canada, played in the NCAA College World Series for the 1972 Big Ten Champion Iowa Hawkeyes Baseball team, was drafted by the Cincinnati baseball farm team out of high school, rode his 1975 Norton motorcycle through various National Parks, was inducted into the Hoover High School Alumni Hall of Fame, and taught University of Minnesota architecture students during study abroad programs in Europe.
Tom's interests in creative and liberal arts, science, creative problem-solving, and teamwork all coalesced into Tom becoming an accomplished architect. After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1977 with a Bachelor of Architecture, Tom joined the Minneapolis firm Architectural Alliance (now Alliiance), where he worked until his retirement in 2023. While at Architectural Alliance, Tom also completed a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University in NYC. In addition to being named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and serving as president of AIA Minnesota, Tom served as President and CEO of Architectural Alliance for 15 years and led more than 100 national and international projects that received more than forty national, regional, and local design awards. Tom's designs (which he preferred to do by hand) were not only beautiful and functional, but also included a unique personal touch. This passion for design excellence is evident in Tom's partnership work on major civic and public projects including The University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium (where the names of the state's 87 counties are cast in stone around the perimeter of the first level), The Guthrie Theater (which includes its signature 178-foot cantilever bridge that others told him was impossible), the Minnesota Children's Museum (with colorful windows selected by his daughters), the United States Courthouse in Minneapolis (where each Judge designed his/her courtroom), MAC airport (where the sink drains are shaped like airplanes), and the Minneapolis Public Library (with its massive exterior glass windows, each etched with unique Minnesota themes of snow, prairie grass, birch trees, and water). Tom also led the design for several corporate headquarters projects, including Allianz Life Insurance, Securian, Ecolab, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Medtronic, as well as projects for The University of Minnesota, including the Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Research, the Physics and Nanotechnology Building, the Cargill Center for Genomics, and the renovation of Tate Hall for Physics and Earth Sciences on Northrop Mall. While under Tom's leadership, the firm received the "AIA Minnesota Firm Award" as an AIA Minnesota member firm that made outstanding contributions to the advancement of the architecture profession.
In addition to family and architecture, golf (and his golf buddies at Minneapolis Golf Club) also stole Tom's heart. Now that Tom has begun his next big adventure, we hope that he knows he was loved by his family and by the friends he maintained from grade school through his final years. He was a one-of-a-kind friend and father.
While Tom believed his architecture would stand as his legacy, we believe it was his character and how he embraced life fully. We hope he is playing 18 holes on a new course, his swing is straight, his ball flies far, and his rounds are blessed with no worse than par!
Tom DeAngelo was a life well-lived.