Tom entered Princeton with a contingent from New Trier High School in Illinois, majored in English, won a wrestling P, ate at Tower, played guitar and piano with the Rockin’ Amadons, and roomed senior year with Eisenberger and Bill Riley. He then went to medical school at Harvard.

Known internationally for researching how cells move and change shape and for discovering two cellular proteins, filamin and gelsolin, Tom held more than 50 patents and authored hundreds of scientific papers. He was a clinical and research leader first at Massachusetts General and then at Brigham and Women’s hospitals. He was the American Cancer Society Professor at Harvard Medical School from 1987 to 2017. He wrote op-eds for major newspapers and in 2015 published Pharmaphobia: How the Conflict of Interest Myth Undermines American Medical Innovation. In Zambia he helped create a medical charity for children and a sickle-cell clinic.

Tom is survived by his wife, Kerry Maguire; children Scott, Sage, and Tamara Sakala; three grandchildren; brother John ’69; and his first wife, Anne Hanford.