Tom Delaney

1943 - 2022

Tom Delaney, 78

FULLERTON - Tom C. Delaney, 78, of Fullerton, passed away Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022, at his home in Fullerton.

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, at Fullerton Community Church in Fullerton with Pastor Joy Church officiating. Burial will follow at Fullerton Cemetery in Fullerton with military honors by Belgrade American Legion Post #99 and Nebraska Army Honor Guard.

Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7 at Fullerton Community Church. Palmer-Santin Funeral Home is serving the family.

Tom was born Aug. 10, 1943, to Frank C. and Elizabeth (Stellman) Delaney at Columbus Hospital in Columbus. He was raised on a farm northwest of Fullerton and attended grade school at Woodlawn District 27. He graduated from Fullerton High School in 1961. He enrolled in college at Kearney in the fall of 1961, and graduated from Kearney State College in January 1971 with a Bachelor of Art in Business Educationusiness Administration. During college, he also worked for the State of Nebraska in Lincoln for a year and spent two years in the United States Army with 17 months of service in South Vietnam. He also taught junior high in a rural school in Merrick County near Grand Island. After graduating college, he moved to Walthill, where he lived for 21 years. He taught seven years at Walthill and three years at Winnebago and Macy Public Schools. He worked as an auditor for six years and was the Institutional Director for Woodbury County in nearby Sioux City, Iowa, before taking a position as a vocation business instructor for the University of New Mexico at their branch campus in Gallup, N.M. From there, he moved to Eastern Arizona College at Safford, Ariz, where he was director of vocations business program at Ft. Grant State Prison. In 1997, he returned to the Midwest because of ailing health of his mother and worked as a disabled veteran counselor out of Sioux City, Iowa. He worked with veterans in South Dakota, Iowa, and northeast Nebraska. When the budget was cut and the job ended, he filled in a year at Keya Paha County High School in Springview and then joined Metropolitan Community College in Omaha and was a vocational instructor at their program at Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln. He left there in 2002 to return to Fullerton and help take care of his elderly mother who died Jan. 12, 2003. He owned and operated Delaney Rental, which had rental homes in Fullerton and was a partner in Delaney Bros Farms with his brother, Ron.

Tom enjoyed developing projects. While in Walthill, he was instrumental in founding the annual Walthill Memorial Rodeo in 1974, and was chairman for four years. When he moved back to Nebraska from Arizona, he read an article in the Grand Island newspaper about investors in the little town of Doniphan founding a new assisted living facility. He convinced a few people to work together, and they built Valley View Assisted Living in Fullerton. He also enjoyed renovating houses for resale or rental and he and his brother, Ron, collected several antique cars and restored them for shows and tours.

In the years after Vietnam, he was involved with many veterans groups in Nebraska, having been on the committee promoting the first Vietnam Veterans Reunion at Grand Island in 1975. Tom received the Army Commendation Metal for meritorious service in the Republic of South Vietnam in 1969 and a plaque from his MAC-V unit also for meritorious service. He was a member of Belgrade American Legion Post #99 and a lifetime member of the VFW in Scottsdale, Ariz.

He is survived by his brother, Ron (Karen) Delaney; niece, Megan (Mike) Anderson; nephew, Travis Delaney; great-nephews, Evan (Marah) Arellano and Adam Arellano; great-niece, Pilar Arellano; great-great nephews, Jameson and Tobias Arellano; great-great niece, Annarae Arellano; and many cousins and friends.

He is preceded in death by his parents.