remembering Tom Connolly
Explorers of these blogs may find references to Transportation Reaching People, a "socialist" version of Uber, meaning run by the county (Clackamas at first) and involving mainly retirees, compensating their mileage, and providing a socially useful role, an opportunity for community service. Tom Connolly was a main reason it all happened.
Tom and his family hailed from Missoula. One of my big adventures was packing up Gutless, my first car, a Honda Civic, and driving back to Montana with Tom, so he could show me around. We backpacked in to Lake Bertha in Glacier Park along the way. He helped me relive some of his memories as a thespian, connected to some troupe in that university city.
Tom looked like a pirate and knew how to act like one if called upon. He had a comedic stage presence, mixed with a gentle intelligence, that endeared him to all the volunteer drivers who signed up to take mostly elders to various doctor appointments, and to shopping malls. Trimet's mandate is to get people from where they are to where they need to go, a challenge only partially solved with fixed route busses.
Tom played several other characters, including a goofy version of Zoltar.
What I learned from Tom is community organizing is a lot about entertainment. Providing a fun working atmosphere around projects with purpose is not just icing on the cake, it's substance. We're talking about volunteers. Only mileage was compensated. They would get to know their regulars. My role was to code a match-making scheduler, to pair up rider requests with drivers. This was in an age pre phone app. It wasn't precisely like Lyft or Uber. One needed a lot more advanced notice for one thing.
Tom was like an older brother and mentor for me in a lot of ways. Upon his retirement, we didn't manage to stay in touch. He passed away several years ago. Tomorrow, I will gather with his family, whom I'd come to know, and we will honor him with a more formal ceremony at a military cemetery.
