Thomas A. LaValle Jr. died on Saturday, January 17th 2026, after a short illness surrounded by his family.  He was predeceased by his father Thomas A. LaValle Sr., his mother Ann (Langton) LaValle, and his sister Margaret.  Tom was born in New York City on April 18, 1933.

He grew up in Pequannock, New Jersey.  He received a BA in English from Blackburn College and an MA in English from Claremont College. Tom served two years in the Navy during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953 where he was stationed in Newport, Rhode Island.

Tom became a teacher at Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, New Jersey and was chairman of the English Department for 25 years.  He developed a nationally recognized composition program and received the Lloyd Ashby Award for excellence in teaching.

After his retirement, Tom taught English at Dominican College and St. Thomas Aquinas College.

He was a member of the Carl A. Schelin American Legion Post 1271 in Tappan, N.Y. and was the president of the Tappan town Historical Society from 2000 to 2004.

In the early 1970s, Tom made a trip to Block Island, Rhode Island during summer vacation and fell in love with it. He bought some property there and with the help of a carpenter friend built a summer home there where he and his family have vacationed for over 40 years.

Tom is survived by his wife, Carol, their daughter Abigail, his daughters Heather LaValle and Melinda LaValle, and Abigail's husband, Robbie Wilson, and daughter, Grace Wilson.

Tom will be cremated. There will be a viewing on January 28 at 9 am at the Moritz Funeral Home, followed by a mass at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at noon, and internment in the Tappan Cemetery Memorial Garden.  In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Block Island Conservancy or your favorite charity in Tom's name.

A lover of Irish literature and poetry, Tom made several trips to Ireland.  It is fitting to close with the third stanza of The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats:

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the

shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the

pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart's core.