Died: November 2, 2005
Peter Godfrey remembers:
Thomas F. Godfrey: July 17, 1944 to November 11, 2005. Tom was born in New York, son of Loretto V. Godfrey and C. Thomas Godfrey, and brother to Constance (Connie) Godfrey and Robert Godfrey. He was raised in Sea Cliff, Long Island, where he attended St. Boniface Elementary School and Chaminade High school. At Yale he was an American Studies Intensive major, in the Jonathan Edwards College (debating, 1962-66; Gilbert and Sullivan Society; Social Committee). His college activities included the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club, 1963-64, Yale Political Union, 1962-64, Yale Young Republicans, 1962-63, and he was active in the Yale Daily News, becoming the publication’s executive manager during his tenure. Friends at Yale recall him as a warm and very likable New Yorker and remembered visits from his then girlfriend, Regina Baumann, who soon after Yale became his wife. He attended Fordham Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. He went on from there to a successful career as a lawyer, diverted briefly by a stint of active Navy JAG duty (1971-73), where he was stationed with his then young family, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He practiced law at White & Case, and then at Davis Polk and Wardwell, in New York City, and in later years, held an executive position at J.P Morgan. Tom and Regina had four children, Peter, Mark, Mary and Andrew, and eight grand-children, Connor, Kayleigh, Erin, Owen, Tyler, Grace, Piper, Andrew, Charles, and Cate. He raised his family in Manhasset, Long Island; and notwithstanding a demanding work schedule, Tom always found time for his children and grandchildren, serving as their soccer coach, lacrosse coach, and sailing coach. He was an avid sailor and raced competitively, often with his children as crew, on the Long Island Sound. He was dearly loved and is greatly missed.
Charles Jester remembers:
Tom Godfrey, in my memory, was a warm and very likable individual, very much a New Yorker. He was hard working, often found at his desk with a work light illuminating only a yellow pad, a nearby bottle of gin and an eight inch diameter metal ash tray piled high with dead cigarette butts. The room was infused with a blue haze from chain smoking. But there was always time for genial conversation with anyone who happened to stop in. Tom was business manager for the Daily News, which was a time consuming job in itself. On weekends there was a fresh bottle of gin for his dry martinis, and often a visit by Gina, his girlfriend, a lovely girl who would frequently stop by my room on the ground floor to straighten it, as I was a terrible housekeeper. Tom’s thesis senior year was on the business aspects of the whaling industry so he spent quite a bit of time at Mystic, Connecticut immersed in their archives. After graduation, Tom married Gina and joined the Army in the JAG Corps. and was stationed at Guantanamo. After his service, Tom returned to New York and a business career. He is one of those people you wish you had more time to get to know better. He is missed.