Feb. 27, 1934 – Jan. 5, 2024
The lessons in teamwork and cooperation that Thomas E. Schultz learned as a young ballplayer later served him as a computer systems manager and as a leader in family programs for the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.
Director of data systems at Erie Community College from 1979 until he retired in 1992, he was ordained as a Catholic deacon and with his wife led the diocesan Family Life Department for many years.
He died Jan. 5 at the Brothers of Mercy Wellness Campus, Clarence, after a period of declining health. He was 89.
Born in Buffalo, the oldest of three children, Thomas Edward Schultz attended St. Teresa’s School and was a member of the second freshman class at Bishop Timon High School, where he played varsity basketball and baseball.
His first baseball coach was his father, Edward J. Schultz, a Buffalo firefighter and All-American Amateur Baseball Association commissioner for the Buffalo area. A standout left-handed pitcher and first baseman, Mr. Schultz was nicknamed “Jake,” after Jake Wade, a southpaw pitcher for the Buffalo Bisons in 1950.
He threw a no-hitter in 1951 and received offers from the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals when he graduated from Timon that June. Instead, he played baseball for four years at Canisius College, now University, where he led the Griffins to Little Three championships and was co-captain his senior year.
He also played on three American Legion teams that went to the state finals and many champion Muny League teams, including Al Maroone in 1954 and Simon Pure in 1956, 1960 and 1961. He was inducted into the…
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