By Joe Calamito

This past September 20th, marked 23 years the River View Observer has been in business, and in the early years we were fortunate to have a lead writer named Tom Dwyer writing our cover stories. He alone was instrumental in keeping our readers interested in all things Hudson County.

Always ready to tackle a new story idea, and creating ideas that made us worthy of our readers attention.

I was heartbroken to find out recently that on April 6th, 2021 the world lost a talented writer and musician when Tom lost his battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

It is hard for me to fathom such a brilliant talent as Tom no longer doing what he loved best, spending time with his beloved wife Susan, traveling, writing and creating beautiful music.

Tom was my friend, and although we hadn’t worked together in years, on occasion he would contact me and offer a travel story he had written and excitedly, I would jump at the chance to have the name Tom Dwyer, grace the pages of our publication one more time.

He would offer advice that I knew would make us a better publication, and in one of our last conversations a few years back, we talked of him writing a regular feature on Travel. Here at the River View we were excited at the idea.

Tom was a talented songwriter and in that last conversation we had, he was proud to let me hear some songs he had written and sold and I was happy he did.

There is no way I can sum up our friendship and working relationship other than to let his work speak for itself, by posting a few of Tom’s stories for you to read. Tom’s earlier stories unfortunately were written before we had the River View Observer website and are only in print , however, I did manage to find some from 2008 and 2009 for you to read.

Tom Thank you for all you did for us-and for inspiring us to push on, you made me a better person and publisher for have knowing you.

I hope you enjoy reading some of Tom’s stories…

Happy Birthday Liberty State Park by Tom Dwyer

Travel Sanibel -Captiva Islands Beauty and Sophistication Fun by Tom Dwyer

The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor

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The post IN MEMORY OF A FRIEND AND CO-WORKER TOM DWYER first appeared on River View Observer.