Tom Dalof, 26, was starting his spring break just like all Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) students. He was out with friends on the night of Friday, March 14, when his school break ended abruptly and tragically. He was killed by a hit and run driver. Dalof was a business major and a senior at NEIU, with only five classes left until graduation. According to his mother, Marybeth Dalof, “He was finally a senior; that took awhile.”
Marybeth described her son to the Independent as, “an intelligent and sensitive boy. Tom would gravitate to little animals. He would stop everything to take care of his turtle.” Dalof was recently accepted into the Chicago Fire Department Academy and into the stage-hand crew union.
One of Dalof’s accomplishments was that he played baseball all his life and he had played for the NEIU Eagles’ baseball team. “He was a dedicated player” said Eduardo Arabu, fellow teammate. “He did a lot to help improve the team.”
Professor Leslie Kleinmuntz had Tom in her advertising class. She said, “He was a terrific student and had a really cute personality. On our last day of class before break, the class gave group presentations. He stuck around after class to find out when grades would be posted on Blackboard. That showed a lot of character.”
Officer John Mirabelli of the Chicago Police Department said Boubacar Bah, 24, was driving at a high rate of speed, according to witnesses, when Bah hit Tom Dalof at the 6200 block of North Lakewood Ave. Bah fled the scene, and police later found the vehicle, a red Buick Skylark, wrapped around a utility pole. Bah later turned himself into police and was charged with reckless homicide and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
“My son would have been a leader,” Harry Dalof, Tom’s father, said emotionally. Marybeth explained that Tom had 6 or 7 friends that he had been close to since grammar school, and that he was the leader of the group. These were the friends that were with Tom in the hospital after the accident. His mother recounted how, just the day before his death, he called and talked to his father and said, “Dad, I am happy.” Marybeth said, “[Tom showed the] fine qualities he got from his father. He had intelligence of the heart. He was a heart-felt person. He was well liked, because he could get along with anybody.”