Thomas A. Biery, 74, of LaVale, Md., died Sept. 13, 2023. He was the husband of Mary McCullough Biery for 52 years.

Born in Northampton, he was the son of the late Paul L. and Susan Kovach Biery of Northampton.

He was a 1966 graduate of Northampton High School. He received a bachelor’s degree in business logistics from the Pennsylvania State University in 1970.

He served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1970 to 1976.

He worked as an executive at Kelly Springfield Tire Company for more than 18 years. He was an independent insurance agent for the National Association of Self-Employed.

He was one of the five founding members of the Western Maryland Chapter of Railroad Historical Society. This chapter, under his presidency, opened the Cumberland Railroad Museum at Canal Place, Cumberland, Md.

His photographs were published in Trains Magazine, The Railroad Press and Transport Topics, as well as in books authored by others. He authored “Alco’s to Allentown,” “Chessie System” and “Altoona Action.”

He researched the genealogy of the Biery family who immigrated to this country in 1735 and the Kovach family who immigrated to this country through Ellis Island approximately 1900. His genealogical research went as far back as the 1500s when the Protestant Reformation resulted in the destruction of churches and church records.

He is survived by a son, John Paul Biery of Knob Noster, Mo.; a daughter, Susan Marie Wolfe and her husband Adam of Crofton, Md.; four grandchildren, Abigail Wolfe, Sean Biery, Madeleine Wolfe and Seth Biery; a brother, Paul W. Biery of Columbia, S.C.; two sisters, Lois M. Kulp of York and Helen Ziatyk of Northampton.

Arrangements were made by the Scarpelli Funeral Home, Cresaptown, Md.