John “Jack” Fallon Jr.’s Walk of Life….

July 27, 1949 - September 28, 2026

By Tara Fallon

Thank you Father Gabriel for this beautiful Mass. On behalf of my family, thank you all for being here to remember my Dad. For those I haven’t met, I’m Tara his eldest daughter, and I’d like to share a bit about who he was.

About 35 years ago, it was a beautiful day at sea, my family was on a sailboat sailing through the Chesapeake Bay feeling the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair. Us kids ranged in age from 10-13 years old and we were on vacation - living on the boat for a week sailing to different ports. Slowly clouds started to roll in, and my Dad tuned into the radio to hear the forecast. It shared a hurricane was moving in our direction. At the mention of hurricane, I remember raising my nose out of the book I was reading and starting to pay attention. Boats around us were starting to head for shore. My parents talked about it, and they decided to ride out the storm on the ocean. Rather than being pounded against a dock, my Dad trusted his instincts and abilities to keep us safe at sea. My Dad said the words, I never thought I’d hear “batten down the hatches.” He taught the three of us how to secure the boat and watch the storm’s progression on the radar. If you look at the pictures from that trip, the three of us never looked more ‘alive’ than we did preparing and watching for the storm. My parents had us tethered to the boat and they had us ride it out in the cabin. After the storm, we headed to port and people were amazed that with three kids we rode out the storm in the ocean. My Dad was in his element - that day encompassed what he loved most in the world - his family and sailing.

Nautical ropes are woven together with strands to make them strong. There are two themes that ran throughout my Dad’s life: devotion to his family and his love of adventure.

My Dad wasn’t a huge talker; he showed devotion to his family by the everyday things he did to support us. When my Dad was little, my Grandmother said, “If I needed an errand done Jackie would always do it without fuss or complaint.” The church also relied on my Dad to do errands, as an altar boy Sister Mary Luke would trust my Dad to take the collection money and deposit it at the bank. As a teenager at Christmas time, my Dad and grandfather would head to Uncle Lonnnie’s house to help build the toys for his younger cousins.

As a master electrician, my Dad was pretty handy and could fix almost anything. When his siblings: Larry, Mary or Trishie needed help - whether it was with a hot water heater or plowing out a driveway, he always showed up.

One day he and his good friend, Phil Holmes were walking by a stranger looking upset on the dock. They got to chatting and found out that the stranger needed some work done on the bottom of his boat and typically it would need to be hauled and fixed. Being the men they were, my Dad and Phil through on their scuba gear and did the work on the spot and the guy was on his way in 2 hours - the stranger was amazed both that they were that good and could do the work under water, and that they’d take the time to help a stranger.

He bought the shoes on my feet that I’m wearing today. More than 30 years ago, he saw a segment on Good Morning America that talked about the most comfortable high heels ever made. I was just heading out into the corporate world, and he wanted me to have every advantage. So, he bought these for me to wear to work, and they are the most comfortable pair of heels I’ve ever owned - and I still wear them all the time. My brother loved seeing how things worked, and my Dad taught everything he knew about engines and helped my brother pick out the features on his truck. My Dad encouraged my sister’s love for animals - My sister loved horse back riding, and he’d go with her to her lessons to help saddle the horses and make sure she was safe. While he didn’t have as much time with his grandchildren as he’d like - he bought them their first fishing rods and taught them how to fish. In the last few months, he loved us relaying our fishing escapades live over the phone and we’d repeatedly have to hang up on him as another kid yelled ‘fish on’ and needed our help.

My Dad was proud of his family and adored my Mom - He never got tired of sharing how they met: One day he walked into the cafeteria at Boston State and saw a beautiful woman in a blue dress playing cards. That day began their relationship and ultimately a marriage that lasted for 52 years. As he had with everyone in his life, he showed his love with the little things. One day my Mom was in bed and I remember her saying I could really go for some chocolate covered strawberries. My Dad had overheard her and made them and brought them in an hour later. I could go on and on talking about my parents relationship, but all you need to do is look at the pictures of my Dad looking adoringly at my Mom over the years to know how much he loved her.

I recently asked him what his favorite memory of my Mom was and he shared: When she was seven months pregnant with my brother, they chartered a sailboat. They needed to sail through the Cape Cod canal, and the weather was kicking up. As they headed out, other boats were turning back. My Mom trusted my Dad and so they persevered. All was going well until a huge tanker was coming up the canal - and for those of you who know it -the canal isn’t very wide. My Dad handed the wheel to my mom and said do exactly what I tell you to do. She drove and he worked the sails. They proceeded to navigate back and forth with the tanker blowing its collision alarm until my Dad could get around the tanker and get them to safety. He admired her strength and courage that day. They eventually got their destination looking like drowned rats and friends were amazed with they had done together. They were a good team - 100% on the same page about the importance of family and complementing each other - my Mom was the planner and my Dad the adventurer.

As a little kid my Dad loved exploring/trying new things. He was always up for going for an afternoon ‘ride’ with Uncle Joey as he never knew where they would end up - one day he woke up in the car and realized he was in NYC. He was thrilled until he also realized he had to call home and tell his mom where he was…He loved baseball and was excited to pitch in the Boston Little League World Series at Fenway Park. He loved trying new foods - as a child I remember him handing new recipes from the newspaper to my Mom so that they could try something new. He loved travel and seeing new places. - When I was in high school, he heard an ad on the radio for a great deal to go to Tenerife. Tenerife is a Spanish Island off the coast of Morrocco. My parents decided to take the whole family, and we experienced the wonder of Mardi Gras and rode on camels and drank Moroccan tea. He gave me and my siblings a love for travel and an appreciation of different cultures.

As a young teenager, his natural curiosity brought him to Community Boating in Boston where he learned to sail. If his family was his first love, life on the water was his second. Anyone who knows my Dad knows he was more comfortable on the water than he was on land. As a young man, he was a scuba diver all year-round piercing the ice and exploring the deep with his friend Joe Pelusi. He became an outstanding sailor and sailed in several Bermuda races and ultimately sailed from Cape Cod to Portugal. I asked him once what his favorite voyage and I was surprised by his response. He said his favorite sail was “one of the Bermuda races where the wind blew consistently at 50 knots for a day and a half” (for non-sailors that’s almost 60 miles per hour). He said he loved the violence of the ocean and the challenge it brought. He had an iron stomach and often volunteered for the night shift on a voyage.

For me there’s a comfort in knowing he passed during a classic New England Nor’easter with the rain pelting the windows and the wind whipping around him - his favorite sailing weather. I also take solace in knowing my Dad’s spirit lives in the next generation. Brooks has his natural sense of tactical strategy - he’s already a successful sailor racing lasers (one of my Dad’s favorite boats). Miller has his sense of tuning into others’ feelings - on multiple occasions I’ve seen him sense how someone is feeling and makes the other person comfortable. Jack has his natural curiosity - whether it’s taking apart something to figure out how it works or thinking of a creative solution to a problem. Sailor shares his courageous spirit- trying new foods and leaping into adventure.

In his final days, my Mom and my siblings were standing around my Dad and he said, “I’ve lived a full life and I’m happy.” To represent his love for his family and for the water, we put a piece of nautical rope into the casket. And who knows, maybe the gates of heaven sit at the end of a dock, and he’ll use the rope to join those who he loves who are waiting for him to start his next adventure.