Haverhill – Thomas F. Behan, a devoted family man and popular school principal, passed away on April 22, 2020 at Holy Family Hospital in Methuen from Covid-19. Tom was survived by his loving wife Patricia of 58 years. He was 80 years old.<\/p>\n
The loving son of the late Francis and Alice Behan, he was born in Haverhill on September 11, 1939, and was a life-long resident of the city.He graduated from Haverhill High School in 1957 where he served as class president for four years. After high school, he did a post-grad year at Phillips Academy in Andover. He received a Bachelor of Science in Education from Springfield College, a Master of Education from Indiana University, and a Master of School Administration from the University of New Hampshire.Mr. Behan began his career teaching science at Hunking School before becoming a school principal. Known as a supportive, caring, and dedicated leader, who would often play kickball and toss the football around with students at recess, he was principal of Hunking, St. James, Silver Hill and Moody schools in Haverhill. After retiring from the Haverhill School System, he was principal of Meritor Academy in North Andover. He also served on the Haverhill School Committee for four years. He was a passionate educator who made a difference in the lives of many children. Sports were always a big part of his life; he was a member of the 1955 HHS State Championship football team. He went on to coach football at Haverhill High School and coached his sons for many years playing baseball at St. Joseph\u2019s Little League. Later in life, he enjoyed golfing and fishing with his grandchildren and attending their many sporting events. He was always their #1 Fan. Known by his grandchildren as GT, he was always one to make them smile and laugh. His creation of the Wasabi Club and trips to the Super Buffet will be happy memories for them all.<\/p>\n
His greatest joy in life was being surrounded by family and friends. He had a welcoming smile, positive energy, and when he told a story, the whole room listened. He loved hosting Sunday cookouts by the pool on North Broadway, fishing and boating at Goose Rocks Beach, weekends at Hampton Beach, and winters in Florida with his wife Pat. His hobbies included gardening, flowers, and landscaping. He will be dearly missed by his loving family and friends.<\/p>\n
Tom is survived by his loving wife of 58 years, Patricia M. (Costello) Behan of Haverhill; his children, Mark Behan and his wife Leslie of Newton, NH, Mary Ward and her husband Robert of Haverhill; Susan Tashjian and her husband Gregory of Haverhill; Michael Behan of Rusk, TX; grandchildren, Stephen Behan and his wife Erin; Patrick Ward; Eric Ward and his fiancee` Casey Taylor; Timothy Tashjian; Brian Ward; Amy Tashjian; and Daniel Tashjian; great grandchildren, Ayanna Short, Ashlyn and Sadie Behan; sister- in- law, Joanne (Costello) Skofield of York, ME, Robert and Mary Costello of East Kingston, NH; Harold and Sheila (Costello) Francis of Groveland; several first cousins and many loving nieces and nephews. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by Ray and Kay (Costello) Bergeron.<\/p>\n
Family and friends are respectfully invited to attend a Memorial Mass of Christian Burial to be celebrated on September 12 at St. James Church, Winter Street, Haverhill at 10:00AM. Burial will follow in Linwood Cemetery.\u00a0 Arrangements are by the Kevin B. Comeau Funeral Home, 486 Main Street, Haverhill. Donations may be made in his memory to St. Vincent de Paul, 6 Cottage Street, Haverhill, MA 01830 or the Liz Murphy Open Pantry, c\/o St. James, 6 Cottage Street, Haverhill, MA 01830. Please visit Comeau Funeral Home on Facebook or www.comeaufuneral.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Haverhill – Thomas F. Behan, a devoted family man and popular school principal, passed away on April 22, 2020 at Holy Family Hospital in Methuen from Covid-19. Tom was survived by his loving wife Patricia of 58 years. He was 80 years old. The loving son of the late Francis and Alice Behan, he was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ma","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}