NPR's 'Car Talk' Co-Host Tom Magliozzi Has Died at 77

By Dustin Rowles | Miscellaneous | November 3, 2014 |

By Dustin Rowles | Miscellaneous | November 3, 2014 |

Tom Magliozzi (above, left, with his brother) one half of the Click and Clack Brother’s on NPR’s popular “Car Talk” program passed away today due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 77.

I had no idea he was that old, and I had no idea that he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, but I’m very sad to hear of his passing. Car Talk was one of those shows that just kind of pervaded the lives of NPR listening families, and even if you didn’t give a rat’s ass about cars, it was hard not to get sucked in for an hour every weekend for the last 27 years. The radio program has been running reruns for the last two years, and still, I find myself listening to it, first in the background, and more often than not, attentively. It’s not the car talk that is so engrossing; it was the personality of the hosts.

Tom and his brother Ray are charismatic guys, and have fascinating backgrounds that you might not at first associate with guys best known as mechanics.

Tom got a degree from MIT, a doctorate from Boston University, worked on semiconductors, taught as a professor for eight years, and at one point, quit everything to do odd jobs for the tenants in his apartment building because he just wasn’t happy teaching.

Tom was good, good people, and we’re going to miss knowing the guy is still around.

There’s a great write-up on Tom Magliozzi on NPR today. If you were a fan, I suggest you check it out.

RIP Tom Magliozzi.