Tad Costello Obituary

With the death of Tad Costello, who was born in Kentucky on September 11, 1923, to John and Paula Costello, comes the memory of their home and the place where they grew up and where life is lived.

(All photos from the Findcansville, KY file: Historic Stories of a Second Chance Girl)

Tad Costello was born in the Kentucky town of East Liberty, Kentucky, on September 11, 1923, to John and Paula Costello. He graduated in the class of 1945 from Lexington High School and was an incoming junior at the University of Louisville when the war broke out.

The young adult Costello went to work for his uncle's bakery in Louisville, and after graduation, he joined the United States Public Health Service in Gainesville, Florida. He served in various roles in Florida until his family relocated to Fairhope, Alabama, where he attended Auburn Agricultural College. Then he transferred to Tyler Junior College in San Antonio for his sophomore year. He also worked in San Antonio at Blythe & Anderson, the same company that trained FBI Agents under J. Edgar Hoover.

In November 1945, Tad became an Assistant Inspector at the Fort Bragg Navy Yard in North Carolina, where he initially directed health inspection programs and supervising inspectors. He returned to Tyler to continue higher education. After two years at Tyler, he transferred to Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he had a long career as a college instructor and supervisor. He taught courses in the social and physical sciences, art and architecture, Spanish, and languages, and he also began serving as assistant dean for social sciences.

After graduation in 1947, he moved across the country to Colorado, and three years later took the associate professorship in the University of Denver. He returned to Alabama to write a thesis on soil conservation before he heard of his cousin’s death. He learned through social services people had lost their homes but did not know where they were or how long they had been there. For a couple of weeks he drove back and forth to hear tales of his cousin, and then he looked over the papers he had gathered—he had time to search online for a few pages—and pieced together the information. When his mother finally told him what it was all about, he wanted to take it upon himself to come to see his cousin’s estate.