A celebration of the life of Thomas J. Mullarney Sr. will be held Feb. 19 at St. Anne’s RC Church, 3545 Kennedy Boulevard, Jersey City. The longtime Jersey City businessman passed away surrounded by family on Feb. 1, at the Wachusett Manor Nursing Home, Gardner, Mass., following a short illness. Tom, or Jack, as many of his customers would mistakenly call him, was the owner of Jack’s Exxon Service Station on Summit Avenue in Jersey City for 34 years and worked as the head mechanic for many years before that. Tom had scores of loyal customers who wouldn’t allow anyone but him to take care of their cars and would only buy their gas from Jack’s, even if it were a few pennies more. In return for that loyalty, Tom made sure those regular customers were the first to get gas during the long lines of the gas shortages in the 1970s.
He trained all three of his sons in the trade as well as several nephews and they all continue to use those skills in one way or another. Tom was a member of the New Jersey Independent Gas Retailers Association and was a strong advocate for keeping New Jersey a full-service state because of the jobs it created. Born in Jersey City to the late Thomas J. and Anna Mullarney, he graduated from Dickinson High School and attended draftsman school in Jersey City. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1950 and while he talked little about the horrors of the conflict he fought in, Tom was of his service to his country. He was awarded three medals of accommodation and two Service Stars. He was honorably discharged March 20, 1954. He was a member of the American Legion Post 80 of Island Pond, Vt.
Tom was always on top of the news. He caught up with the happenings in his Jersey City by getting The Jersey Journal as often as he could, even when he moved out of the area, and watched CNN regularly. But the news he enjoyed hearing most was what happening in his grandchildren’s lives. He and Rachel retired to Central Massachusetts on Sawyer Pond. Set near a freight rail line, Tom would watch the trains traveling by counting the cars and checking out what engine was running it, recalling his early days as a draftsman for the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad in Hoboken. An avid fisherman, he taught his sons the joys of finding peace on the water. He would cast a line and sit for hours, just waiting for a bite. And then he would go home, not even caring if he caught anything.
Tom is survived by Rachel; a daughter, Nancy Macchia; his three sons, Tom, Jr., and his wife, Judy Locorriere, of Montclair, Brian and his wife Sheila, of Easthampton, Mass. and retired Jersey City firefighter, Kenneth and his wife, Renee, of Beachwood; and five grandchildren, Jessica, Chelsea, Thomas, Savannah and Kaleen; three great-grandchildren; his brother-in-law, Robert Casey, of Secaucus, and sister-in-law, Eileen (nee Flynn) Mullarney, of Manalapan and many nieces and nephews and grandnieces and nephews. The burial will be held at a later date in the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Agawam, Mass. Memorial donations in Tom’s name may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital , 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, Tenn., 38105.