Description:
Dr. Thomas Abbey, born in 1925 in Newark, New Jersey, grew up in nearby Nutley during the Great Depression. He enrolled at Rutgers University in 1943 in the College of Agriculture, but left after one semester to enlist in the US Army Air Corps in August 1943.
The military trained Abbey as a radio operator at Scott Field, Illinois, where he mastered Morse code and aircraft communications. He deployed to Europe and served with a squadron of C‑47 transport aircraft, part of troop carrier operations supporting Allied advances. Stationed primarily at Villacoublay Air Base outside Paris, France, his unit ferried gasoline and medical supplies to General George S. Patton's Third Army and evacuated wounded soldiers back to rear areas.
His missions frequently involved landing on improvised forward airstrips and operating under radio silence in unarmed aircraft, exposing him to significant risk despite limited direct combat. He also passed through Camp Lucky Strike near Le Havre and later served on detached duty in Biarritz near the Spanish border. Abbey remained in service until May 1946.
After the war, Abbey returned to Rutgers, graduating in 1949. Initially hoping to attend veterinary school, he instead entered the pharmaceutical industry, working for Lederle Laboratories and later another company for seventeen years, selling veterinary medicines across regions including Indiana and the American South. He later transitioned to selling human pharmaceuticals before pursuing medicine himself.
Abbey earned admission to the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1966 and completed his medical degree in 1970. He trained in the St. Petersburg-Tampa area and eventually established a family practice in Jacksonville, Florida, where he worked for thirty‑eight years. He held privileges at multiple hospitals in the city, including major institutions and multidisciplinary practices, and later collaborated with physicians in pulmonary care, internal medicine, and critical care.