Thomas Quinn Guenin

July 15, 1953 – October 22, 2024

Thomas Quinn Guenin of Bay City died unexpectedly on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, following an athletic workout not far from home.

Throughout his life, Tom was admired for his kind heart, empathy, and attentiveness to others, especially people in need of encouragement or assistance. For the past decade, he was a staff member of Goodwill Industries of Mid-Michigan, where he gained satisfaction by contributing to fulfillment of its charitable mission. 

Born on July 15, 1953 at St. Mary’s Hospital, Saginaw to Bernadette King Guenin and Louis J. Guenin, Tom was educated at St. Stephen School of Saginaw, and St. Stephen High School, from which he graduated in 1971. He was an undergraduate at Delta College and Central Michigan University, from which he earned a B.S.B.A. in 1976. He earned an M.B.A. from CMU in 1982. Under the tutelage of his accountant father, Tom developed a talent for performing calculations in this head. No computer needed, thank you.

Tom’s great uncles Clement P. Quinn and Cyril J. Quinn (whence Tom’s middle name) played varsity football for the University of Michigan in 1910 – 1913, and his father played freshman football in 1923. In the company of his family, Tom at age seven attended his first Michigan football game. That launched what became his lifelong appreciation of and loyalty to Michigan athletics, and deep understanding of its history and traditions with which to view its present. Possessed of something like a photographic memory, he could recite the score of every Michigan football game he had ever attended. (This talent did not work as reliably for games seen on television). To humorous effect, he could also express seemingly any emotion or reaction by uttering only colorful expressions of Michigan’s hyperenthusiastic broadcaster Bob Ufer, whose albums of broadcast excerpts Tom knew from memory. Disinclined to travel by air, he once traveled to Minneapolis by train for fourteen hours to support the Wolverines in the finals of the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

For his part in sports, in grade school he played football and basketball on St. Stephen teams, and in high school played junior varsity basketball. In adulthood he was an avid runner, and in later years a bicyclist, enjoying long rides on Michigan’s bike paths. He also enjoyed kayaking and rowing. On excursions near and far, he delighted in the beauty of the outdoors−and the people−of his beloved state of Michigan, declaring that he had never wished to live anywhere else.

Tom was preceded in death by his father in 1976, and by his mother, for whom he cared throughout her last illness, in 1993. He is survived by his brother, Louis M. Guenin of Belmont, Massachusetts, and by many classmates, devoted friends, and cousins.

Funeral arrangements are entrusted to W.L. Case and Company, 4480 Mackinaw Road, Saginaw, where a visitation will be held on Monday, October 28, 2024 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

A funeral mass for Thomas will be celebrated on Tuesday, October 29, at 11 a.m. at St. Stephen Church, 1310 Malzahn Street, Saginaw, MI. Rev. Steven M. Gavit will celebrate the mass. Interment will follow at St. Andrew Cemetery, 381 Saint Andrews Road, Saginaw.

Those contemplating an expression of sympathy may wish to consider a contribution in Tom’s memory to a charity of their choice.

Thoughts and memories of Tom may be expressed for viewing by the family at www.casefuneralhome.com in addition to any other site at which you read this.