Bipeds of Brookland: Tom Rooney

Bipeds of Brookland: Introducing the people who make Brookland their home, one step at a time. 
This week: Tom Rooney

Tom Rooney  was a professor of art at Catholic University for over 30 years. Tom came to DC to study art at CUA after serving in WWII. He met his wife Angela when she was studying at Catholic in the Drama Department. “The first time I saw her she had the lead in Antigone.”

They bought a house on 14th Street in the early 60s for $15,000. “My salary for the year, I had just started teaching at Catholic University, was $4,800 a year.” Tom created the sculptures that can be seen in front of his house. His art studio is in the carriage house behind his wooden home, built around 1900. “In 1900 you had horses. Cars were just coming in. They had a couple of horses down here…”

The studio is filled with his work. “It’s all out of my back yard; I just use the branches and whatever I can. I don’t start with a preconceived idea. I just work with the materials that I’ve collected and then the ideas spring from the material.”

“I liked teaching. I liked working with students. I could walk to work. I just like Brookland. It’s a friendly neighborhood that’s amazingly unchanged over the years.”

A big change that never came to Brookland was thanks to Tom and his wife. They, along with many others, fought against the building of the freeway through this neighborhood, and won. “They had taken a couple of [houses] legally.  We raised hell about that. They didn’t take any more.”

Interviewed by  Tom Sabella