Obituary of Tommy Neil Tucker

Author and teacher Tommy “Tom” Neil Tucker passed away on April 1st, 2024 at the age of 80 years old. Tom was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Susie and Buell Tucker and excelled in school from an early age, earning a full merit-based scholarship to attend Harvard College, a rare opportunity for a first-generation college student from a small midwestern high school. He transferred to Washington University at St. Louis where he completed a Bachelors in English Literature magna cum laude and a Master’s in English Literature.

Tom’s passion for literature was quickly followed by a call to teach. He taught English literature, writing and speech most of his career, including at the high school (New Trier High School, Winnetka, Illinois), community college (Isothermal Community College, Spindale, North Carolina), and university (Stetson University, DeLand, Florida) level. In rural North Carolina, he launched an annual Bloomsday reading celebration of the novel Ulysses on the 16th of June, bringing together area teachers and students to honor the legacy of James Joyce.

In addition, Tom was a prolific writer, fascinated by the history of science. He published four nonfiction books, all about invention: Brainstorm! The Stories of Twenty American Kid Inventors (1998), Touchdown: The Development of Propulsion Controlled Aircraft at NASA Dryden (1999), The Eclipse Project (2000), and Bolt of Fate: Ben Franklin and his Electric Kite Hoax (2003). The latter was warmly reviewed by Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker. Both Touchdown and The Eclipse Project were published by NASA, the result of a fellowship administered by the NASA Armstrong Research Center and Stanford University. As part of this fellowship, Tom spent two summers in the Mojave Desert (Lancaster, California) leading research and interviewing aeronautical engineers. In his own words, his work “gave a human context to the process of intellectual discovery and invention.” His writing resulted in several awards and recognition, including a Woodrow Wilson fellowship, the Blumenthal Reader Award, first prize in the Gardner Webb Playwriting Contest, and a Bakken fellowship. He won writing contests that awarded him trips to Mexico and the Netherlands. He wrote for Sports Illustrated, Ploughshares, Screen, Filmmakers Newsletter, and Technical Photography. In spite of all these accomplishments, Tom was the last one to tell you about them; he was a humble, easy-going guy, with a quiet sense of humor and a gentle soul.

Tom met his wife Diane on a blind date in Glencoe, Illinois, and they were married for 55 years, raising their children in Libertyville, Illinois and then in Rutherfordton, North Carolina; both artists and writers, they were kindred spirits. Tom loved to garden and was known for cultivating beautiful Camellia bushes in the acre of land around his home in Rutherfordton. 

Tom had a big heart and a strong faith in God. He volunteered for years with the Knights of Columbus at the Immaculate Conception Church in Forest City, North Carolina, organizing a Bible study for prisoners at the Rutherford Correctional Center, and he enjoyed reading the Bible into later life. 

Tom was a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather. In passing, he is re-united with his wife Diane and survived by his brother Gary, son Matt, daughter-in-law Jenny, son Joseph, daughter-in-law Xiaoxi, daughter Bonnie, son-in-law Scott, and six grandchildren: Samuel, Grace, Kaihan, Patrick, Hanlin, and Theodore.

Visitation for Tom will be from 9:30 - 10:30 AM on Sunday April 7th at McMurrough Funeral Chapel, 101 Park Pl, Libertyville. Where a funeral service will be held at 10:30 AM. Interment to follow at Lakeside Cemetery Libertyville. Funeral info (847) 362-2626. Please sign the guestbook at www.libertyvillefuneralhome.com. In lieu of flowers, memorials made to the Isothermal Community College Foundation https://isothermal.edu/college-foundation/index.html would be greatly appreciated.