Thomas Joseph Ruane

Thomas Joseph Ruane

Born August 25, 1954 and died July 19, 2023

Son of Gertrude Ann Ruane (Cantu) and Joseph John Ruane

Bachelor's Degree in English (Creative Writing) from SUNY New Paltz in 1970 and Master's Degree in Computer Science from Union College in 1980.

Tom was a Programmer at IBM, Poughkeepsie NY. Over his 43 years at IBM, Tom worked with many different divisions, ranging from tools development to hardware verification. He was essential in the design of the testing environment used across many IBM projects. Tom immersed himself into his assignments, learning new methodologies and consistently proud of his achievements. Always optimistic, Tom brought a brightness to a place where sometimes the weight of the work can make people forget how important it is to have fun while doing it. More so than his many work accomplishments, Tom's presence around the office will be missed. Tom was always available for a quick chat or walk to the cafeteria. His knowledge of music, baseball and literature was outstanding.

His life was steeped in numbers from his job at IBM to SABR and Retrosheet. Tom was a member of SABR (Society of Baseball Research) since 1991. He was the recipient of the 2009 Bob David's Award https://sabr.org/awards/winner/bob-davids-award-tom-ruane/ as well as the 2016 Henry Chadwick Award https://sabr.org/awards/winner/tom-ruane/, which are awarded for excellence in baseball research as well as contributions to the field of baseball research. He also would post regularly to the SABR-L message board, with studies about the numbers that would interest him and he thought would also interest other people. He always signed off with 'Thank you for your patience'. Over the years, Tom also had numerous of these insightful studies published in the SABR publication, Baseball Research Journal. Tom was also consulted for many books written about baseball, Moneyball and Total Baseball, to name a few. This was a true combination of his skills with computer programming, love of baseball statistics and his eloquent way of telling a story. https://sabr.org/journal/article/henry-chadwick-award-tom-ruane/

If one baseball organization wasn't enough, Tom joined Retrosheet in 1997 as a member and in 2004 became a board member. Retrosheet was one of his true passions. He was part of the monumental task of creating digital files for box scores, finding and resolving discrepancies in the data and play by play statistics going back to 1901 as well as the design and implementation of the website. Countless articles and insights into his extensive quest for knowledge that Tom wrote about all things baseball can be found at the Retrosheet website. https://www.retrosheet.org/Research/RuaneT/retro_fun5.htm

Tom was also a published short story author, having stories published in Witness, Yale Review, ACM Another Chicago Magazine, The Southern Review, Carolina Quarterly, Epoch, The Massachusetts Review, The New Renaissance, Muse's Mill and the Short Story Review.

Throughout his life, he also had a habit of collecting friends. If you met him you couldn't help but love him. Due to his height he was always easy to spot in a crowd and always stood out. His quest for knowledge had made him a voracious reader on a wide variety of topics so he could talk to anyone about anything. Every time you talked to Tom you learned something new about him or the world. He also loved to walk. He could be seen at lunch time with his friends walking around the IBM Poughkeepsie Campus and then on weekends walking around Vassar College and our neighborhood in Poughkeepsie, NY. He had an extensive T-shirt collection. Each one had a story attached to it and he was happy to share that with anyone that would ask.

Tom also loved music and searching out new musicians to listen to. In March of 2021 he began his "My song of the moment" Facebook posts, which included a story about and a link to one of his favorite songs. The postings showed up at least once a week and illustrated his broad interest in music. He also compiled a yearly Christmas CD/playlist of his favorite musical discoveries for the year combined with some of his old favorites, that he distributed to his friends and family.

Tom loved his family with his whole heart. He relished all the time he spent with his boys as well as brothers, sisters in law and brothers in law, and nieces and nephews. He loved being a father and was always up to take the boys and their friends on adventures around Poughkeepsie, the Hudson Valley, and with SABR throughout the country. Tom was always willing to help in any situation from helping his wife in her crochet adventures to always doing the dishes after a family meal, to feeding the very hungry family cats.

He is survived by his wife, Eileen Marie Travis, son Joseph Edward Ruane and wife Joanna Carber, son Patrick James Ruane, brother Richard Ruane and wife Andrea Chesman, brother John Ruane and wife Tricia Ruane, mother in law Mary E Travis, Laura Travis, Deborah Travis, Mark Sustic, Diane Travis, Peter Weitzman, Edward L. Travis, Rita H. Travis, Devan Weitzman, Peter Hansen, Nicole Travis, Kylie Travis, PJ Criscione, Rory Ruane, Sam Chesman and Travis Weitzman. He is predeceased by his parents Gertrude A Ruane and Joseph J Ruane, his brother James Ruane and nephew Thomas Sustic. The whole family is so proud of all his accomplishments and never more grateful that he was able to share those talents and insights with the world. Tom's loving heart will truly be missed, he really was the best guy.

A Celebration of his life will be held at Czelusniak Funeral Home in Northampton, MA, from 12PM to 3PM on Saturday, July 29, 2023. Casual dress encouraged (wear your favorite t-shirt!). https://www.czelusniakfuneralhome.com/ Please bring your stories as well as any photos you would like to share. Contributions can be made to SABR or The American Cancer Society.