Thomas Edwin Earley

Thomas Edwin Earley, age 67, of Dover, passed away Tuesday, January 17, 2006. Tom was born January 11, 1939, at Dover, a son of the late Dr. Edwin T. and Ruth A. Watkins Earley. Tom graduated in 1957 from Dover High School, where he ran the 180 low hurdles and one-mile relay. Upon graduation from Dover, he attended Muskingum College, where he was on the tennis team, track team, and was a member of the Mace club. Tom graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in biology, and from The Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine. He also taught school for two years in the Columbus City School District and the Berea City School District.Upon his return to Dover, he joined the family business; the former Valley Manor Nursing Homes, Inc. Tom was a member of the First United Methodist Church at Dover. Tom was a man of many diverse interests. He enjoyed the arts, theater, cooking, and opera. He was a renaissance man of sorts, studying science, philosophy, and history. He also obtained his private pilot’s license. He was an avid reader and practitioner of varied disciplines. For instance, cycling and other endeavors were not just passing fancies, they became a passion. He built his favorite cycle in the living room, while at the same time constructing an airplane in the garage. His love and dedication to motor racing developed at an early age, modifying lawnmowers and the family cars. While in college he raced a Porsche and built a formula car for club racing. Later, his father joined him to sponsor a professional racing team that competed successfully throughout the United States.After podiatry school, his focus turned to the famous Mille Miglia, a 1, 000-mile race that takes place in Italy every year. He and a close friend entered it in 1993, in a serious but unsuccessful attempt. Not to be discouraged, Tom and friends entered the race again in 1998 and finished a respectable fifth place in their class driving a 1947 Cisitalia. Illness prevented his third attempt in 2003.Tom led a full, exciting, and adventurous life. His many friends will miss his dry humor, his subtle wit, his generosity and his quiet, serious approach to life. Tom has left the planet! Arrividerci.Tom is survived by his wife, Linda McGonigal Earley, two sisters, Sarah Reynolds and Margaret Jones, special friends – Skip Limbaugh and Jerry Marlowe, and many other special classmates and friends. Friends are invited to attend a memorial service at 7 PM followed by a reception, given by his wife, Linda, in the Geib Funeral Center, 5600 North Wooster Ave at Dover, on Thursday, February 2, 2006. The Rev. Allen Bergmann of the First Moravian Church will officiate at the memorial service.Memorial contributions may be used to set up a scholarship in memory of Tom through the Buckeye Career Center Foundation, Inc. 545 University Drive, NE, New Philadelphia, OH 44663 or in memory of Tom through the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, Medical Arts Building, Suite 400, 3708 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3405.Geib Funeral Center at Dover(330) 343-5506www.geibfuneral.com