Thomas E. Schell - Online Memorial Website

Dad had the answers. One time after work a coworker and I were in his living room having a discussion about a current event, and we each had different opinions about what was happening.  During our discussion, up pops Dad on the television to tell us what was really going on!  And that wasn't the only time.  In 1992 a coworker and I were listening to music while we completed paperwork at the end of our shift.  When a news break came on, we stopped to listen to the report about the riot going on in L.A.  I was so proud when at the end of the report, the news man said "Tom Schell, ABC News."

Dad was a very loving, caring, and generous person all his life. He worked hard and played hard. And he laughed hard. Some of my favorite memories of Dad are memories of when we laughed together. One time while on a long-distance phone call, I told Dad a joke that I had just heard. After he finished laughing, he told me that he had heard that joke before I was born. I don't know which was funnier to Dad, the joke or the fact that he heard it again from me after all those years.

Dad told me that when he and his sister Martha were young, they had a new wagon that they had received for a present. During a steel collection drive to support the WWII war effort, Dad and Martha took the wagon to a donation site. When I asked Dad if he and Martha had the wagon loaded with steel, he said "We donated the wagon." When I was about ten years old, Dad asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I asked for a more powerful eye piece for my telescope, but under the tree Christmas morning there was the biggest telescope I had ever seen!

Just a short time before Dad left this world I was counting my blessings, and one of those was that at my ripe old age of 50, both of my parents were still alive. As you can imagine, over those 50 years I have gathered a lot of wonderful memories about Dad. I would like to share them all, but I'll stop here for now. Except, that is, to let you know that Dad told me more than once that he wanted his epitaph to read "Tommy had a good time."

God bless you, Dad. I love you.

I still remember always talking to my grandpa about basketball ever since I was little. I always told him that I wanted to play and be the very first girl in the NBA. When I was finally old enough my grandpa told me that there was a different league for girls, the WNBA. I didnt believe him. So when there was a game on, he called me and told me to turn it on. He got me in to basketball and was the reason I started playing. He always supported me in everything I did, especially basketball. There was never a game that he missed. If I had to bet on who would never miss one of my games, I would have bet on him every time. He was always there cheering me on, or yelling at the refs (then I would say I had no idea who he was) but I am going to miss that. I know now it was just because he loved me and wanted me to do good. Getting back out on that court is gonna be hard, but I will keep doing it just for him. He is always going to be there on the court with me and every game I play now is going to be dedicated to him.

Tom was a good man, good friend and one hell of a reporter!   While at ABC News, based in Atlanta, I'd often get sent out to L.A. to fill in at the bureau.  Tom was unselfish, always willing to give me his time and vast knowledge of his complex territory to help make my story better.    Tom's sources were impeccable. So was his reporting.   

 

Tom and I often spoke about our families, whom we were very proud of.  Tom was a funny, warm and caring friend and colleague.  A special guy doing special work.

I remember Tom from my days at the La Cienega studios in the 70's.  He was always down to earth and one of the hardest working journalists I've known.  After I left L.A. for the Washington Bureau I ran into Tom on campaign trips and other assignments.  What a busy guy!  I especially remember his rapport with the troops in the newsrooms at ABC.  Tom always had time for everyone.  Easy to remember and hard to forget Tom.

I met Tom face to face once or perhaps twice.  But he was often on the other end of the phone, at the other end of the country.  Tom was one of those news guys who was "plugged in".  He knew stuff. He had Sources.  He worked his sources. He would steer us toward a new story or a new angle, or he'd steer us away from one that didn't check out. He was ALWAYS right.  Is that what it means to be a rubber dummy?  Then that's what I want to be. 

Tom Schell was a gentleman journalist with a disarming sense of humor.  My professional contact with Tom was always like talking to an old friend.  After he retired we still talked by phone about work and family.  Tom loved his family and his conversation would sometimes include some regret that his career had kept him away from family more than he wanted.   

Tom Schell represented all that was good about journalism in the last half of the 20th Century.  To meet Tom for dinner was always special.  His first person stories never failed to entertain.  I suspect a lot of us will always wish he had written a book of anecdotal stories because his first person perspective saw so much more than just the 30 or so seconds he was given by broadcast producers.  In fact, brevity is one of the less enduring parts of broadcast journalism.  There was so much more Tom wanted to tell us.

Tom's departure reminds me of an old show biz saying.  I believe in context it was advice to all performers wanting to have a successful and lasting career.   It goes, "The first rule of show business is, always leave them wanting more."   Tom was a successful reporter with a long career.  His stories, his laughter and his friendship are a wonderful part of my life.  I hope where ever you are Tom you are still telling stories....and still leaving folks wanting more.

 

My favorite memory of Tom concerns his unexpected trip to Canada's Northwest Territories. As he told the story, he was playing golf one weekend afternoon, when he was paged and told to report to LAX - or some nearby airport - immediately. A Russian satellite had fallen to earth somewhere in the frozen north, and he was to cover the story in time for the weekend news shows. When he mentioned he was wearing shorts and a golf shirt, the news desk said time was of the essence. Go!

So Tom arrived at the airport, met his crew, and they hopped on a charter for Yellowknife or some other hamlet up there. When he arrived, he headed for the Hudson's Bay store and bought some winter clothes, so as not to freeze to death.

He stayed there several days, covered the search for the fallen satellite, and returned home and filled out an expense report that included a couple hundred dollars for clothing.

It bounced back to Tom, with the notation that "we do not pay for clothing."

When he protested and noted the circumstances, he was told that he could alter the form in any way he wished, and change the figures, but not use the word clothing.

So Tom padded the transportation, cab fare, meals, parking, telephone, and whatever...deleted the cost of the clothing...yet the figure miraculously came to the same amount as his first submission.

Except, in typical Rubber Dummy fashion, he included a note at the bottom: "P.S. There is a suit of clothes in here. See if you can find it."

They paid the expense request. In full.

We loved working with Tom as a professional, and we treasured him as a friend.

HI DONNA, MY NAME IS BARBARA MAYERS, AND ALTHOUGH WE HAVE NEVER MET, TOM AND HIS SISTER, MARTHA, ALONG WITH MY SISTER NANCY, GO BACK A LONG WAY, TO WHEN WE WERE KIDS. TOM'S AUNT JESSIE MARRIED MY HUSBAND DAVE'S BROTHER. JESSIE WAS THE SISTER OF TOM'S MOTHER. THE GRANDPARENTS (MR. AND MRS. STEWART) LIVED RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET, FROM US. TOM AND MARTHA WOULD COME TO VISIT THEIR GRANDPARENTS, AND WE ALL BECAME CLOSE FRIENDS, VISITING BACK AND FORTH, AND PLAYING TOGETHER. ACTUALLY I MET MY HUSBAND, THROUGH NAN AND JESSIE. WE WERE MARRIED 56 YEARS AGO LAST OCTOBER. AFTER TOM'S PASSING, MY HUSBAND RECALLED ALL THE TIMES HE USED TO TAKE TOM WITH HIM WHEN HE WOULD MAKE DELIVERIES, FOR HIS FATHER'S HARDWARE STORE, IN DOWNTOWN STEUBENVILLE. HE SAID TOM LOVED GOING WITH HIM, AND RIDING UP FRONT, IN THE PICK-UP TRUCK. WHEN TOM CAME HOME FOR HIS SURPRISE VISIT, FOR MARTHA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY, WE WERE SO HAPPY TO SEE HIM. HE NEVER FAILED TO CONTACT US, WHENEVER HE WAS IN THE AREA. WE HAVE MANY FOND MEMORIES OF TOM, MARTHA, NANCY AND I, AND OUR CHILDHOOD DAYS ON PINE STREET. HE NEVER FORGOT HIS FRIENDS AND FAMILY, AND HE HAD A GREAT MEMORY, OF HIS EARLY DAYS IN STEUBENVILLE. HE WILL BE GREATLY MISSED, AND ALWAYS REMEMBERED VERY FONDLY. SINCERELY, BARBARA MAYERS

     My fondest memories of Uncle Tommy are as my mother's only sibling.  He was a humble man who never forgot where he came from, probably because she wouldn't let him!  My heart aches for the loss of someone who was fortunate enough to be loved and admired by so many. From my perspective, aside from my mom, he was the last surviving member of our enchanted family stories.  Someone who remembered a history that only they could share. Anyone having the pleasure of seeing them together would agree! Long before the man Tom Schell became, there was a boy who had a baby sister that couldn't keep her clothes on chasing after him.  There were years as a Navy family; there were the years as the children of a postman, the years of adolecence as his father attended law school and became a successful politition who believed "If the son was no improvement over the father, then both had failed." Uncle Tommy made his father a very proud man. There were elementary school teachers, high school football coaches, basketball teammates,  band members, and classmates who remember him well. Uncle Tommy went to the same college as his father, but was side tracked by a job in local radio. No one guessed then, it was the foundation of a career that would take him around the world;  or, that he would become one of the best in the business.  Those early stories brought a smile to his face, and he would put all of us in stitches with his own laughter as he remembered when....I remember he called mom regularly, a practice that continued through out his entire life. What a remarkable man.

The sobriquet's genesis escapes me now, but Tom's idea of naming himself "The Rubber Dummy" endeared him to all of us who took his calls from the stump during Hubert Humphrey's run for the White House in 1968. When ABC mounted a phone on a tree on the Hearst estate during the Patty Hearst saga in 1974-75, Tom picked up one day answering our call with "Hello, ABC Tree." A good reporter with a good sense of humor who never forgot to check in with radio after he moved to the tube. Thanks, Tom, for all of it.

I remember the first time I met Tom. He was then a TV correspondent for ABC News, and he had just returned from covering a frightfully-difficult story... the annual seal hunt in the north Atlantic. He had not even gone home after he got back to New York, but instead dropped by the newsroom. As it happened, we had a sick call that night. Before I even asked, Tom volunteered to cover it. He spent the next five hours writing and delivering radio newscasts!

Hail and farewell, Tom. The good people all remember you.

I will never forget anything that i ever shared with my grandpa. He was an amazing guy and the best that a person could get. The greatest memory i will ever have is when I was about 2 years old. I was visiting him and my grandma and we were outside one night. I looked in the sky and there was a cresent moon, but at the time, I never knew there was such a thing. Grandpa was holding me and I looked at him and said, "The moon is broken grandpa, you need to fix it." He told me he would and when there was a full moon I was very excited that he fixed it. Now I guess he is closer, so it will be easier for him to fix it. I am always going to remember that time. My grandpa was an amazing guy and he will always be remembered.

I will never for get when Uncle Tommy,(that is all I have ever known him by), came home to Steubenville for Martha's birthday party. I worked so hard to keep it from her. The day of the party was the best. When he walked into the room Martha's face lit up like a radiant sunbeam. I think that weekend was one of the best tha a  brother and sister could have spent together. May he be with God and looking down on all who knew him. It was a pleasure to have known UNCLE TOMMY