Thomas Christie

Tom Christie died on May 18 at home at Daylesford Crossing in Paoli. He was 94.

Tom was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Sophie McBride and Thomas Christie. Around the corner lived his best friend, Tom Gardner. Tom Gardner’s younger sister, Jean Gardner, would later become Tom Christie’s wife.On his 18th birthday, when World War II was at its peak, Tom received a draft letter from the United Kingdom Armed Forces. He entered basic training with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of the Scottish Army and was sent to Italy in the summer of 1944. After the war, he returned home and entered medical school at the University of Glasgow. On July 8,1952, he took his medical board exams; on July 9, he married Jean Gardner; and on July 10, they boarded the USS United States as she returned to New York City from her maiden voyage. He often said he came to the United States with less than $100 in his pocket. When they landed in New York on a hot July day, trunks full of woolen clothing, a family friend took them into a bar and introduced them to a drink called a Tom Collins. To the end of their days, Jean and Tom would never forget how good that drink tasted on their first day in the U.S.A.Between 1955 to 1965, Tom and Jean had five children and moved from Western Pennsylvania to Virginia, to West Virginia, and eventually to Wayne, where Tom stopped practicing medicine and embarked on what became a 30-plus-year career running the International Medical Affairs division of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.Jean passed in 2008 after a brief illness. Tom continued to live in their home in Wayne for nearly a decade.   

In 2017, he sold his beloved home and moved to Plush Mills, in Wallingford, to be closer to family. There he met his dear companion, Mary Reavy, a beautiful woman who shared his joie de vivre and love of dancing. When dementia made independent living difficult, he moved to the Connections unit at Daylesford Crossing in Paoli.Tom loved to entertain, to dance, to make people laugh, and to make his family and those he cared about feel loved. He was a man of generous spirit and a devoted son, husband, father, uncle, and grandfather.He is survived by his son Tom Christie and daughter-in law Sandra Mitlas, daughter Linda Christie and son-in-law Curtis Mills, daughter Michele Christie and son-in-law Richard Kahn, and daughter Diane Christie Shaffer and son-in-law Dan Shaffer; his nine grandchildren, Thomas D., Julia, Stanton, Thomas, Stephen, Stephanie, Andrew, Liam, and Nicholas; and his brother-in-law Dr. James Gardner. He was predeceased by his daughter Stephanie in 1980.