Thomas C. Wales ’70, a federal prosecutor and a member of the fraud unit in the U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle since 1983, died on October 12 at Harborview Medical Center as a result of gun shot wounds to his neck and side. Tom specialized in the prosecution of banking and business crime. A gun-control activist, he was president of the board of Washington CeaseFire, a group working to end gun violence.
Tom’s assailant apparently fired at least five shots through the basement window as Tom worked at a computer in the basement of his Queen Ann Hill home. Although no arrests have been made and officials say there are no new developments, law enforcement officials are saying that Tom was a victim of a calculated hit.
Described by friends as a wonderful person, a visionary and passionate advocate, many in the Milton community also remember Tom as a poet and an athlete. While at Milton, Tom was captain of the football team and co-head monitor. As a student, he had a sensitive and helpful nature and was assigned to room with Joseph Kennedy to help Joe cope when his father, Senator Robert Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968. A graduate of Harvard and Hofstra University School of Law, Tom leaves two children, Tom, 24 and Amy, 22, his former wife, Elizabeth Mueller Wales ’70, a brother Richard Wales ’72 of San Francisco, a sister Kitty Wales and his parents Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. Wales ’44 of Cambridge.
Gifts can be made to Milton Academy in memory of Thomas C. Wales.
