RELA president, Tom Sasso, killed in New Year car crash.

Thomas Edward Sasso, 51, president of the Real Estate Lenders Association and senior vice president of GE Capital Markets Group, died on Jan. 1, in Westchester County, N.Y. of injuries sustained in an automobile accident on December 29.

"We are saddened by the terrible and untimely loss of our friend and colleague," said Matthew Landau, of CDC Mortgage Capital, who serves as chairman of RELA's board of directors.

"Tom was a leader par excellence, combining personal integrity, motivational skills, and professional competence that made everyone eager to join his team."

According to Landau, Sasso's contributions to RELA included increased membership, concentrated fundraising efforts and a great improvement in the number and variety of speakers that the organization features at its monthly meetings.

As a person, Sasso will be remembered as an optimistic, gregarious person who was always ready to help others and who enjoyed regular backgammon games. He survived major cancer surgery in 2000.

"Only the good die young," said Landau. "Tom was a good man. He was a special person, the guy who always got the joke, who was always optimistic, who was very human. He was a real leader."

Katy Gnapp, of Banc of America Securities, who will take Sasso's place as president of RELA, remembers him in much the same way.

"He was always very positive," she said. "He always had a kind word to say to everyone, he encouraged debate and had a sort of a consensual approach to decision-making."

Tom Sasso was a graduate of St. Peter's Preparatory and of Boston College. He began his career with Chemical Bank, later joining Chase Manhattan Bank and, subsequently, GE Capital.

A celebration of his life and a special Mass was held on Wednesday, January 7, at Mount Carmel Church in Ridgewood, N.J. Donations in lieu of flowers can be made in Tom's name to St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City, N.J.; Boston College, Boston, MA; the American Cancer Society; and Westchester Medical Center in Westchester, N.Y.

Sasso, who lived in Ridgewood, NJ, is survived by wife Kate Quackenbush-Sasso and daughter Allison Quackenbush-Sasso; parents Thomas A. Sasso and Felicia Lettieri-Sasso, of Teaneck, NJ; and sister Diane F. Sasso.