Tom Mahony Jr. was the kind of doctor who not only made house calls, but at least once drove a patient to the hospital.
Mahony, who died at 89 on April 25, was an internist in Denver for 40 years and director of the residency program at St. Joseph Hospital.
A memorial service will be June 29 following the 10 a.m. service at Park Hill Congregational Church, which he helped found.
Pat Hickey of Denver — Mahony’s insurance agent and a friend — was on a business trip in 1956 when he fell ill with salmonella poisoning in Julesburg.
Hickey said he stayed in the motel thinking he would get better, but finally gave up and drove to Denver.
It was after midnight when he called Mahony, who drove the nearly 5 miles to Hickey’s home, loaded him into his Volkswagen and drove him to St. Joseph Hospital.
Hickey remembers little about the ride except the kind of car.
“Tom drove a lot of VWs, and I insured all of them,” he said.
One of Mahony’s pursuits was guitar, which he took up as an adult. He played classical works with the Colorado Classical Guitar Association, said his son Dr. Tom Mahony III, known as “Dr. T.”
The senior Mahony was an avid climber, trekking to the top of several of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks.
“He dragged me up to Longs Peak several times before I was 14,” said Mahony’s son, who lives in Colorado Springs. “It scared the hell out of me.”
Thomas J. Mahony Jr. was born in Framingham, Mass., on March 9, 1919, and earned his medical degree at Tufts Medical School.
He did his internship and residency programs at the University of Colorado.
“Dad rebelled on everything,” his son said, contrasting his dad with the elder Mahony’s father and two brothers, who were lawyers and had gone to Harvard. “Dad studied at Yale, went into medicine and moved to the wild West. He had visited Colorado and loved it here.”
In addition to his wife, Mollie Mahony, and his son, Tom Mahony is survived by his daughter, Gael Fetcher of Steamboat Springs, and two other sons: Bill Mahony of Davidson, N.C., and Barry Mahony of Seattle.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
