Thomas Wade Popeney

May 2, 1928 - September 2, 2021

LA MESA — Thomas Wade Popeney was born May 2, 1928, in Titusville, Pennsylvania. His parents were Charles Arthur Popeney and Evelyn Wade. His father died when Thomas was 5 years old and his brother Charles, Jr. was 4 years old. His mother was left to raise and support Thomas and his younger brother, Charles, during the Great Depression. Thomas graduated from Titusville High School in 1947, lived in the same house where he was born and his father died in. Often after school hours he spent his time in the local library reading science books. After high school Thomas attended a radio school and went to work for several radio stations as a disc jockey until he was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. He was assigned to the White House for his radio skills; the company that developed the radio communications system for the train for President Truman, could not retract the radio mechanism that was atop Truman’s train, which could not go through tunnels in the East without losing its signal. Tom himself repaired it resulting in President Truman being able to continue his politicking at that time. Tom talked about Bess Truman playing the piano while he was attending to the maintenance of radio communications that was the method of communications for the White House during the 1940s and early 1950s. Since our country entered the Korean War Tom was reassigned to Jakarta, Indonesia to teach its police department how to use radio methods for communications. As part of his living quarters, he was assigned both a “house boy” and a “laundress.” Since he had no desire to spend his funds, he saved it up and when he left Indonesia, he gave all his savings to these two attendees who were extremely poor. On his return to the US Tom was honorably discharged as a Sargent. Tom applied for the GI bill, attending PENN State. Since the GI Bill was only good for 3 years Tom carried as many as twenty-six units per semester. He graduated with a BS in Psychology. He applied for a position at the University of Ill., Champaign Ill. campus site in the Behavioral Dept. observing, studying the behavior of monkeys for 7 years. While there he met and married his first wife Lois Mccauley, a nurse at the same campus eventually they married in Illinois. Tom decided to adopt her children legally, assuming responsibility as a father giving them his own last name, Popeney. Soon Tom applied for a technical job in Indio, CA and moved there. He drove his new International Harvester from Illinois with Lois, four children and a monkey named George to Indio, Calif. Realizing that the gentleman who contracted with Tom to develop the farming application for automatic watering was about to go bankrupt after 4 months, Tom decided to apply for a counseling position with the State of California Employment Department under the MACC program counseling youth ages 16-22 for job preparation. He was assigned in San Diego in the Hillcrest area. On Friday evenings he would drive back to Indio and return to Hillcrest Sunday evenings until this program was eliminated. He moved his family to Santee, Calif. where he put a down payment on a house there. While living in Santee about 10 years Tom took flying lessons; he did fly an airplane back to Titusville to visit his mother with a licensed flyer aboard and his children. Eventually his marriage to Lois ended in divorce. He volunteered at the Neighborhood House Center in El Cajon, CA on weekends as a “call-in” counselor. Thomas was assigned to the Unemployment Department in San Diego as a counselor, later as a supervisor of counselors. Over the years the name of this California department changed but he was assigned to various sites in the city of San Diego continuing to work in unemployment. 1974 he married Bertha Trudell Young, a teacher for SDUSD and moved to La Mesa. They have lived in the same house for over 45 years. He was a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus. Tom was a founding member of Mary Magdalene, Apostle Catholic Community. For five years he served as Sacristan. He supported Dignity- San Diego chapter. He walked two annual events in the Pride Parade representing Dignity-sd. He retired in 1991. In retirement he crafted fine woodworking from recycled wood and read much science literature and subscribed to many woodworking magazines. He enjoyed traveling and camping throughout California, the United States and Europe.

Thomas is survived by his wife, Bertha, also known as Bert, his sisterin-law Georgette Popeney of Houston, Texas; his sons Steve (Carol) Popeney, Jim Popeney, and his daughter Teresa (Chris) Ransom; nine grandchildren and five great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Charles, and his son, Kevin Popeney.

A Memorial Mass will be 11am on October 2 at Mary Magdalene, Apostle Catholic Community in the Gethsemane Lutheran Church. Burial will be at 10:30am on October

6 at Miramar National Cemetery. Tom passed away peacefully in his home in La Mesa with his wife and caregivers by his side on September 2nd. He died of complications from Alzheimer’s Disease.

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