Inducted in 2017
Attorney
Member, Prep Board of Trustees (1973-1977)
Father of a Prep Graduate

Back in 1956, Big Tommy Brennan was voted “Best Athlete” by his classmates — and not without good reason. A member of one of the most celebrated teams in school history, his prowess on the Prep’s playing field is still the stuff of Rose Hill legend. Even then, however, his friends knew there was more to Tom than just his strength, speed, and agility. He was loyal to of his family and proud of his hometown. He was a dependable friend, and never turned his back on someone in need. He was fair-minded, generous and kind. And, above all, he was a young man of strong convictions and deep faith. These are the qualities that Thomas Brennan would embody his whole life, and for which he would be remembered always by family and friends, colleagues and associates, and all who had the chance to know him.

Thomas Augustine Brennan Jr. was born in Washington, DC on February 11, 1938 — a cold, foggy Friday in the nation’s capital. His father, Thomas Sr., a Fordham Law grad, was a labor attorney for the Hearst Corporation. His mother, Carolyn Doran Brennan, was a ballet dancer who had performed on the stage of Carnegie Hall as well as a private dance instructor and a physical education teacher in several New York City public schools. 

Tom grew up in Eastchester, New York. The devout Brennan family were parishioners of the nearby Church of the Immaculate Conception, where Tom would also as serve as an altar boy and attend the parish grade school along with his sisters Carol and Ann. As a boy, Tom spent his summers at Camp Acadia, a Catholic camp for boys in Sullivan County, New York — first as a camper, and later as a counselor. It was during these years that he met the love of his life, Elizabeth Ann Rogan. She, of course, was at Acadia’s sister site for girls, Our Lady of Lourdes. In gratitude for the important part these institutions would play in his life and the lives of others, Tom would later write the definitive history of Acadia and Lourdes.

Graduating from Immaculate Conception in 1952, Brennan would begin his Hughes Hall years the following September. From the very start, he was a standout athlete at the Prep both as an Aquaram and on the gridiron. Month after month, the Ramparts of the era stand as a record of his incredible performances both in the pool and on the field. A four-year fullback with the varsity squad, Tom was a member of the historic 1954 undefeated and untied team under fellow Hall of Honor inducted, Coach “Sammy” Ososki, earning All-Scholastic and All-Metropolitan honors, as well as being named

“Leading New York Catholic Scorer.”

During his high school years, Tom Brennan also put in some time on Student Government as well as with the Physics Club. A spiritual young man, he was involved with the prayer life and charitable outreach of the Prep community as a member of the sodalities.  A Knight of the Blessed Sacrament, he was also a regular at First Friday devotions and an usher for schoolwide Masses.

Tommy also attended the senior prom. His date: none other than his sweetheart from those summers in Sullivan County, Miss Elizabeth Rogan of Bedford Park Boulevard, a student at the Sacred Heart of Mary Academy in Manhattan.

Thomas and Elizabeth were married in November of 1962 at St. Phillip Neri Church on the Grand Concourse. By then, Liz had graduated Salve Regina College and Tom had earned his undergraduate degree from Holy Cross and was working towards his law degree at Fordham. He had also embarked on his service as a reservist in the Marine Corps, from which he was honorably discharged in 1963. The Brennans would raise four children: Eileen, Elizabeth, Sheila, and Thomas III. Thomas III would carry on the Maroon legacy as a member of the Prep Class of 1991, while daughters Eileen and Elizabeth would follow in their father’s footsteps through Fordham Law.

Graduating law school in 1963, Brennan worked with the Manhattan firms of Keating & Ricca and Whelan & O’Neal before joining his father as an attorney in the Office of General Counsel of the Hearst Corporation in 1967, a position he would hold until 1996 when he was appointed director of the Hearst Family Trust. Throughout his career, he would also serve as counsel to the Westchester County Public Employment Relations Board. He would retire in 2006. 

Along the way, Thomas lent his time and talent to many organizations which were important to him. He served as president of the New York Guild of Catholic Lawyers, and was a trustee and the parish historian of his beloved Immaculate Conception Church. In 1988, he was appointed governor of the New York Athletic Club and remained in that office through 1993. Proud of his Irish heritage, Brennan was very involved with the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, becoming their 72nd president in 1992. He was also active in the American Irish Historical Society and was a member of the Kilkenny Archeology Society in the land of his ancestors. 

There was one more institution with which Thomas Brennan remained especially close: his beloved alma mater, Fordham Prep. He was a member of the Board of Trustees from 1973 through 1977, unquestionably the most financially difficult years in the school’s history after the legal separation from the University and the move to Shea Hall. Without the hard work and careful planning of Brennan and his fellow trustees, the Prep would surely have been forced to close its doors before decade’s end. For his support, his tenure on the Board and his many years as president of the Alumni Association, Fordham Prep will always remain grateful.

Thomas A. Brennan Jr., Esq. passed away on August 24, 2016. He was the grandfather of fourteen. The words of condolence that poured in echoed the sentiments expressed by the Class of 1956 some sixty years before: he was a family man, a good neighbor, and a proud Irish-American; he was kind and generous, fair and even-handed, and loved his God above all.