Remembering the Honorable Thomas M. Whalen III.

• Author: Mataraso, Matthew H.
• Position: Law teacher - Testimonial

I met Tom Whalen's father six years before I ever met Tom. I worked for the New York State Department of Audit and Control where Tom's father was in top management, and at the same time I was also a night student at Siena College.

I met Tom in September 1955 when we both started Albany Law School. Tom lived in Albany and I lived in Guilderland. Every morning for three years I would drive down Western Avenue in Albany and pick him up for school at the corner of Brookline Avenue.

A product of a Catholic school education, the nuns taught him well because Tom had the most beautiful penmanship. He kept wonderful notes in law school and to finance his education, he duplicated the notes and sold them to his fellow students. He gave them to me without charge, I guess in payment for the free taxi rides.

We seldom spoke to each other during the ride to school but that was the beginning of a friendship that lasted until the day he died. I would not be a trustee of Albany Law School today were it not for Tom Whalen. I had breakfast with him on the day he died and received a letter written by him that same afternoon concerning a law school related matter we discussed during breakfast. The letter was delivered two days after the tragic accident that claimed his life.

Tom and I would play golf most Thursday afternoons although neither one of us excelled at the sport. I distinctly remember the day Mayor Erastus Corning died, it was a Saturday and as usual I was playing golf. Tom called to invite my wife, Ann, and I to City Hall for the swearing in ceremony. My wife reached me at the golf course and down we went. I think I was the only Republican among the assembled group. Tom was a dyed-in-wool Democrat who I believe never ever voted for a Republican. I would tell him that being a Democrat was not his religion and that voting for a Republican was not a mortal sin. I'm sure that if he had lived in Guilderland, he would have voted for me when I ran for political office.

Tom and I enjoyed the dinners we would have at former Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals Sol Wachtler's home in Rensselaer County with Judge Joseph Bellacosa and Pulitzer Prize winning author William Kennedy. The conversation naturally was always about politics, both local and national.

Tom had a distinguished career that started in law school and continued throughout his professional life. He loved Albany Law School, he loved being Mayor of the City of Albany, he loved the...