Thomas Tierney (1952-) | University of Illinois Archives

Thomas Tierney was born in Columbia, Missouri and raised in Murphysboro, Illinois by his mother, Jane Rollo Tierney; Father, Jack Tierney; and step mother Mary Tierney. Facscinated with film and television soundtracks, he began composing in the 5th grade and in the 7th grade he began studying composition with his middle school teacher. In 1965 he received a bachelor's degree in advertising from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, taking piano lessons in the School of Music. Largely self-taught as a composer, he began composing his first student musicals and wrote his first musical review while he was an undergraduate. He would earn a Masters in Radio Television advertising from the University of Illinois in 1968. Following this, he began work on a PhD in communications, but abandoned the degree to pursue a career as a broadway composer in New York city. While in New York, Tierney met his future wife, Maureen.

Between 1977 and 2000, Tierney composed several hit musicals that were performed on Broadway and in local theaters across the United States including Eleanor - An American Love Story, Narnia, Pets!, Ichabod, and The Dream Team. A composer and lyricist for commercial companies, Tierney's work can be heard in commercials for Coca-Cola, Astra USA, Oral-B, IBM, and State Farm Insurance. His song "Bringing the World Closer To You!" served as the theme song and background music for AT&T's pavilion at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center. Tierney has performed his own music at Lincoln Center and at the White House. He has won numerous ASCAP awards and served on the Board of Governors at the New York Television Academy.

In 2021, Tierney wrote Five Guys in a Beetle, The Grandest Grand Tour: Europe, 1963, which was published by Sunstone Press and documented his college roadtrip to Europe in 1963.