Thomas Edgar Pitts, Jr. – 50th Reunion Essay

Thomas Edgar Pitts, Jr.

185 Oakland Ave.

Cranston, Rhode Island 02910

tpitts5@cox.net

401-439-1958

Spouse(s): Sondra V. (Ahlijian) Pitts (1969)

Child(ren): Shanna L. (Pitts) Treveloni (1973)

Grandchild(ren): Jacob T. Treveloni (2011); Alexandra R. Treveloni (2014)

Education: University of Pennsylvania Law School, J.D. 1976

National Service: CTI-2, US Navy, 1969–73

Career: Bankruptcy Attorney, Edwards & Angell for 14 years, Sidley & Austin for 13 years

College: Silliman

Long before graduation, Sondra Ahlijian and I had decided to marry, and we did on June 29, 1969. Earlier that spring my law school acceptance letters had arrived within days of the inevitable draft notice. I enlisted in the navy and began my four-year hitch in August. To my retrospective good fortune, no avenues to officer status were open and I left boot camp with the rank of seaman (E-3). After spending a year teaching me yet another foreign language, the navy sent me to Europe as an equipment operator on reconnaissance flights. I was discharged as a petty officer second-class just in time to start at Penn Law School in the fall of 1973. Our only child, Shanna Lee, was born in February of that year.

After 11 years away from home, we decided to start my career in Providence rather than New York City. I pigged out during the smorgasbord phase of training new lawyers in larger firms, but I settled rather quickly into business insolvency work, in or out of bankruptcy and for debtors or creditors. I became a partner in 1982. The entanglements of some of our New England clients, especially in the precious metals industry, pushed me to New York with increasing frequency. The firm opened a small office there in 1978 and I became a member of the New York bar in 1985. In 1990 I moved as a partner to the New York office of Sidley & Austin, a Chicago-based firm with hundreds of lawyers and a nationwide bankruptcy practice. Sondra and I acquired a second home on the Upper East Side. So much for plans.

My years at Sidley were a period of immense professional growth. Functioning well in a national setting was every bit as challenging as advertised. But those years also saw the beginning of the end of the traditional insolvency practice, at least for many larger companies. As markets developed far more forms of debt, the focus of the practice moved from the shop floor to the trading floor. Markets may have many virtues, but spiritual uplift is not one of them. I retired from the active practice of law at the end of 2003.

After a couple of years of relearning how to read without guilt, I started serving as a trustee at a highly successful, grade 3-8 private school in the historically impoverished part of Providence, and as a volunteer assistant to the president of the Community College of Rhode Island. The work at the private school continues, but at CCRI I became a part-time employee and served only until a new president was appointed in 2016.

We are moving into real retirement slowly, although I doubt that Sondra will ever stop volunteering. Shanna and her spouse Jaclyn have wonderfully provided two adorable grandchildren—Jacob (born in 2011) and Alexandra (born in 2014). Need I say more about the future?