By JOHN F. MORRISON
Thomas J. Barlow couldn’t stand the thought of children not having a good Christmas.
So every year, for more than 15 years, this veteran firefighter got the names of four or five needy families from churches and social agencies and saw to it that the families got food, clothing and gifts for the kids.
He would get a fellow fireman to put on a Santa Claus suit to deliver the gifts. Tom himself was a bit too shy for that; he was a background sort of guy; but he organized and carried out the venture.
“He would collect money from the whole battalion, and he and and I would go shopping,” said his wife, the former Veronica “Ronnie” Andrel.
“He would get the names and ages of all the kids. Then, we’d wrap the presents. He couldn’t think of kids without a Christmas.”
That was what Tom Barlow was all about. He not only saved lives as a 35-year veteran of the Fire Department, but he took care of everybody who needed him - family, friends, fellow firefighters.
“He had a big heart,” his wife said. “He was a giver.”
Tom Barlow, who was determined from childhood to follow his father into the Fire Department, an Army veteran of Vietnam and a role model for anybody who ever had a charitable thought, died Friday of heart failure. He was 58 and lived in Broomall, but had lived most of his life in Overbrook.
“He taught me so much,” his wife said. “He made me a better person.”
They were married Aug. 30, 1969.
Barlow was born in Philadelphia, the fourth of nine children of William Barlow and the former Bernardine O’Neill. His father was a 30-year firefighter assigned to Ladder 24, 61st and Thompson streets.
Barlow graduated from Overbrook High School in 1964 and entered the Army. He served a year in Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1967-'68. He was there during the critical Tet Offensive.
“He was very patriotic,” his wife said. “We have a flagpole in the yard, and we take the flag down at night. He was a true American son.”
When he returned from Vietnam, one of his first acts was to go to Havertown to visit the family of a friend who had been killed.
“He told them what a brave son they had,” his wife said, “how he talked about his parents all the time. He made them feel good about their son.
“He always made sure that everybody was OK. If somebody needed a couple of hundred dollars, he would be there. He always said. ‘It’s only money.’ ”
Barlow spent 30 years of his career with the Fire Department with Ladder 6, 43rd and Market streets. It shares a firehouse with Engine 5, and it’s one of the busiest in the city.
He was the “cruise director,” which meant he was in charge of the canteen. Everybody chipped in, and he organized and planned the food stocks.
As a schoolboy, Tom tended to disrupt the class because every time a fire truck went buy, he’d rush to the window. Teachers didn’t appreciate his passion and reported his behavior to his parents.
Later, when the family might have been at dinner at their home on Wynnewood Road and the sirens of Ladder 24 would start screaming, Tom and other kids would run to nearby Haverford Avenue to watch the big ladder truck go by.
William Barlow was the tillerman on the truck and would acknowledge the kids with a wave and a blast of the airhorn as the truck swept by.
“Then, they would go back and finish their dinner,” Veronica said.
After a heart attack, Barlow became a driver, for the last five years of his career, for Gary Appleby, deputy fire chief commanding the 1st Division. They became fast friends.
Barlow was a fan of the Atlantic City casinos and liked to play the lottery. He did very well with those games.
“I think he won a lot because he gave a lot,” is Veronica’ s theory.
When the grandkids came along, Barlow became a devoted granddad, taking the kids to the Strasburg Railroad, Dorney Park and other amusements. He was planning a trip to Disneyworld.
He and Veronica went to Las Vegas, Virginia, North Carolina. “We went to every museum in Philadelphia,” his wife said. “And there’re a lot of them.”
Barlow liked to volunteer at the Seaman’s Church Institute, where his wife works.
When the son of his sister, Ann Richards, had a kidney transplant, which she donated, Barlow offered to pay a dollar for every stitch.
“He was surprised that there were 250 stitches,” Veronica said.
But, as Barlow always said, “It’s only money.”
He also is survived by a daughter, Veronica Doonan; four brothers, William, Joseph, Michael and Robert, and three other sisters, Bernardine DeMarco, Mary DeMarco and Sue Quinn.