Thomas Reilly - Early Life

Early Life

Reilly, a native of Springfield, Massachusetts, described himself as a "misguided youth" the year his father, Mortimer "Murty" Reilly, was found dead at home from a heart attack when Reilly was 16. Reilly was arrested for public drunkenness when he was 20. By age 22, he was focused with driving ambition, much to the credit of his friend Wayne Budd's father, an ex-Marine turned policeman in Springfield who took him under his wing and encouraged him to go to school.

Reilly attended Cathedral High School in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated in 1959. After graduating high school, he went off to college in Nova Scotia at St. Francis Xavier University. He stayed there only a year, transferring to American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he graduated on June 7, 1964. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.

In July 1966, Reilly married Ruth Gammons (b. 1941), now a retired schoolteacher. The couple have three daughters: Leslie (b. 1968), Meaghan (b. 1973) and Kyle (b. 1980).

Reilly moved to Washington, D.C. and worked for two years with the Central Intelligence Agency. For one year, Reilly lived in Dearborn, Michigan, where he worked with the Ford Motor Company as a Labor Relations Representative until 1967. Reilly attended Boston College Law School and received his JD in June 1970.

Reilly worked for two years as a prosecutor in the state Attorney General's civil rights division. He worked for four years as a Suffolk County prosecutor. In 1976, Reilly and Budd formed “Budd and Reilly”, a Boston-based law firm. The firm became the largest minority-dominated firm in New England.