Thomas L. Salem Jr.
Thomas L. Salem Jr., of Lakeland, TN, the Science and Operations Officer of the Memphis station of the National Weather Service, has died. He was suffering from renal cell carcinoma and passed at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis on the evening of September 13, 2022. He was 57.
Salem was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1965, attended undergraduate and graduate school at Pennsylvania State University before entering the weather service in 1995 as a Lake Effect Researcher in the National Weather Service Eastern Region Headquarters on Long Island, NY. In 2001, he was promoted to SOO of the Glasgow, MT, office before being transferred to the SOO position at the Memphis station in 2007. He also served there as acting Meteorologist in Charge in 2021 and 2022.
Salem was preceded in death by his parents, Thomas L. Salem Sr. and Joanne Salem (née Celebrezze), and he is survived by five siblings and five nieces and nephews: his sister, Mary A. Hyde, married to William, and their daughters Caroline and Catherine of Virginia; brother Patrick J. Salem, married to Dr. Mary T. Cherian, and their son Thomas of Illinois; brother George F. Salem married to Jennifer (née Hutten) of Ohio; brother Kevin M. Salem of Ohio; and brother Richard M. Salem married to Dr. Elizabeth (née Wesolowski) and their children Clare and Richard also of Ohio. He is also survived by aunts and an uncle, cousins and friends.
In addition to his work at the NWS, Salem served as a member of his church’s youth ministry, was a long-time member of the Boy Scouts of America after achieving the rank of Eagle in 1983, and played softball for many years.
A 15-year member of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Cordova, TN, Salem will be celebrated there in a memorial mass on Friday, September 30 at 10am. A greeting for family and friends begins at the church at 9:30. There will be a funeral mass and interment in Cleveland in December with details to follow. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests making donations to St. Francis of Assisi parish youth ministry or the Penn State student charity, THON, which benefits children with cancer.