1928–2016 — Born Lowell, May 30, 1928; died at a Lowell nursing home on a Sunday morning in October 2016, aged 88 (obituary, Lowell Sun, October 11, 2016).
A Lowell man who lived at the Battles Home for some twenty years, from about the early 1980s.
Documented profile. Built from records we have read: deeds, directories, newspapers, inscriptions. Each statement links to its source.
David Tighe was born in Lowell in 1928, the son of Dr. Michael A. Tighe and Helena (Calnin) Tighe, and went through the Lowell schools. He worked for more than twenty-five years in the maintenance department of Lowell Technological Institute, the college that became UMass Lowell. He followed the Red Sox, played golf and bowled in several leagues, and ushered at St. Mary Church in Chelmsford for many years.
When the Lowell Sun visited the Battles Home for its hundredth year in October 2001, he had called the house “home” for nearly twenty years. The paper found him in a comfortable room with an alcove for television, bowling trophies on the windowsill and dozens of family photographs, and photographed him beside the portrait of his late father that he had hung there.
He died in October 2016, aged 88; his funeral Mass was at the Immaculate Conception Church in Lowell, with burial at St. Patrick Cemetery.
“David Tighe in his room at the Battles Home, where he has hung a portrait of his late father, Dr. Michael Tighe.” Sunday/Style, p. 15, story by Nancye Tuttle.
Lowell Sun, October 11, 2016 (Legacy.com): born in Lowell, May 30, 1928; his parents; his work at Lowell Technological Institute; his interests; his funeral.
After about 47 years at Fairmount Street, housing up to around eleven residents at a time, the rest home closes. The foundation that ran it dated from 1901 — which is how a "104-year" figure sometimes appears in print.[C-023, C-025]
DocumentedThe Battles Home
Clues gathered from the research compilation and from secondary sources. Published so that others can follow them; none has yet been confirmed against an original record.
Public tributes and family notices; see the text.
This page is a working record, not a finished one. If you are a descendant, a collector, a local historian or an archivist and you hold anything connected to David R. Tighe — a photograph, a letter, a diary, an object, a family story, a document we have misread — we would like to hear from you. We publish nothing without permission, credit every contribution, and correct the page when the evidence says we should.
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