Thomas Maude

Thomas Maude died peacefully at home on the morning of August 13, 2025, with his wife and children nearby, a sturgeon moon setting, and the perseid meteor shower fading into the dawn.

He was born on June 12, 1949 in Sheepshead Bay, New York. Tom lived a life full of travel, stories, and more calls of sláinte and verses of Christmas carols and rebel songs than you could count. In his youth, he was infamous for his swims across the bay, dives off bridges, and habit of cutting class to read history books at the library. Before he settled into his lifelong career, he worked as a taxi driver, a merchant marine, and a sailor on a tall ship distributing Heineken in the Caribbean, among other unusual occupations.

For most of his life he worked as a marine surveyor, walking the docks of New York, Texas, the Midwest, and many more distant ports with a camera to document damaged cargo and a singular literary voice that came through in his handwritten reports. In late life, he worked for FedEx loading trucks and sorting packages— a job he truly enjoyed.

He loved his family dearly. In 1982, he married Janet Davis, eventually raising their children in the western suburbs of Chicago. He took an interest in all things that interested his children, from serving as an assistant scout master for years for his son’s Boy Scout troop to researching and reporting on the history of upcoming choir trip destinations for his two daughters. He and his wife spent as much time as possible exploring any park remotely within driving distance of Chicago, or singing and celebrating at Irish music festivals.

One of his great joys throughout his life was open water swimming. Building on his competitive past in high school and college, Tom got back in the pool (or retention pond, or river, or small lake, or Lake Michigan) in his fifties and swam many, many races. He frequently won his age division, even when he chose to up the difficulty by swimming 5k open water all with the butterfly stroke.

Everywhere he went, Tom took the scenic route- avoiding tolls, seeking adventure, and detouring to every historical marker along the way. He made friends easily and could start a long, deep conversation with any stranger who happened to be standing near him.

Tom is survived by his three children Claire, Kate (and fiancé Michael Groh) and Neil (and wife Danielle Maude Littman), and his wife of 42 years, Janet Davis, through whose tireless care Tom was able to stay home until the end.

We remember and honor his constant optimism, curiosity, determination, eccentricity, and above all, his kindness.

There will be a Celebration of Life ceremony in Indian Lake, New York in late August, 2026.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration. 

Arrangements entrusted to Chicagoland Cremation Options, Schiller Park, IL