LACONIA--- Dr. Thomas F. Cullen, 84
A life’s importance is measured by the impact it has on others. Given the skill to save lives and to repair the bodies of strangers, a surgeon’s impact on others can be especially deep.
Dr. Thomas F. Cullen was born in Dublin, Ireland on August 12, 1937. The eighth of nine children raised with limited resources during difficult years, he resolved at a young age to make something of himself and proceeded to do just that.
Three big decisions drove that achievement. He pursued a career in medicine. He married wisely. And he emigrated to the United States.
Young Tom was captain of his high school cricket team and started dating Mary, the sister of one of his friends, as a teenager. They married in Dublin in 1962 where he was a 24-year-old medical student at the Royal College of Surgeons and she was 21. They embarked on a loving, complementary, and fruitful partnership for the next 53 years.
The first of four sons, John, arrived in 1964. A year later the young family moved to the United States. Dr. Cullen honored the Irish tradition by arriving in Boston by boat and began his surgical residency at Boston City Hospital through Boston University. While living there, son Brian arrived in 1967.
The following year, foreign doctors living in the United States were made eligible for the draft. Although he was 31, had a wife and two children, and was not yet a U.S. citizen, Dr. Cullen was promptly drafted into the U.S. Army. He could have avoided service by returning to Ireland. Instead, the Cullens accepted the draft. They served one year in Virginia before Dr. Cullen deployed for a year to Vietnam as an Army surgeon, where he was awarded a Bronze Star. The rest of the family returned to Ireland, where Mary had more support as a temporarily single mom. While in Vietnam, Dr. Cullen volunteered in mission clinics, providing care to Vietnamese peasants who otherwise had no access to modern medicine. Dr. Cullen considered that work some of the most satisfying medicine he ever practiced.
In 1970, Dr. Cullen was honorably discharged as a Major and applied for jobs. After he was hired by the Laconia (N.H.) Clinic, the reunited family moved to Gilford, where they built a home and became Americans. Sons three and four, Fergus and Rory, joined the family in 1972 and 1973.
Dr. Cullen practiced medicine as a general surgeon in the Lakes Region for three decades, first with the Clinic and later as an independent provider. He was on call for emergencies at Lakes Region General Hospital at least a couple days and nights every week. He was one of the last physicians in the area to make regular house calls to see his patients. Later he formed a partnership with Dr. Taj Shafique, in part so his patients would not be left without a provider when he retired. The two foreign-born surgeons adopted the tongue-in-cheek slogan, “Have It Out with an Alien.”
In retirement Tom and Mary moved to Sandwich, N.H. Dr. Cullen served on the board of the Sandwich Children’s Center and was elected as a trustee of the town’s trust funds. He and Mary went on many month-long medical missionary trips. Dr. Cullen’s vices extended only as far as golf at the Laconia Country Club, where he was a member; a Datsun 280-ZX; and an occasional scotch. His last decades were characterized by the contentedness of a man whose life turned out far better than he ever imagined possible as a child.
Mary’s death six years ago left an enormous void in Dr. Cullen’s life that never closed. His last discernable word was “Mary.” He lived his last years as a resident of the Taylor Community in Laconia, where he died peacefully on October 30, 2021, age 84.
He is predeceased by his parents, Thomas M. and Nora (Byrne) Cullen, and siblings Charlie, Peggy, Kathleen, and Lilly. He is survived by siblings Nonie, Mary, Myles, and Michael, who live in Ireland; and his four sons, their wives, and nine grandchildren (and counting): John and Jennifer Cullen of Needham, Mass.; Brian Cullen and June Schmunk of Amherst, N.H.; Fergus and Jenny Cullen of Dover, N.H.; and Rory and Laura Cullen of Park City, Utah. His nine grandchildren, who knew him as Daddy-Daddy, are Margie, Ellie, and Michael (John’s); Alex, Eliza, and Isabel (Brian’s); and Jacob, Myles, and Fiona (Fergus’s).
Calling Hours will be held Wednesday, November 10, 2021, from 4:00-6:00 pm, in the Carriage House, at the Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home, 164 Pleasant Street, Laconia, N.H.
A Memorial Service will be held Thursday, November 11, 2021, at 11:00 am, at the Sandwich Methodist Meeting House, 10 Main Street, Center Sandwich, N.H.
Burial next to his wife Mary will immediately follow in Center Sandwich Rural Cemetery, behind the Community Church.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Sandwich Children’s Center, 54 Maple Street, Sandwich, N.H., 03227 or online at Sandwich Children’s Center .
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services and 603Cremations.com, 164 Pleasant St., Laconia, is assisting the family with the arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial please visit www.wilkinsonbeane.com.