Thomas N. Ash, a member of the religion department faculty and a tennis and golf coach, died Saturday of cancer at his Montgomery home. He was 54.

"He was great with kids - a superb teacher," said his brother-in-law, Peter Cronin. "When Moeller found Tom Ash, they struck gold. And I think they knew that."

Moeller principal Blane Collison said, "He was just a very kind and gentle person who really witnessed his faith by the way he lived. Certainly he's a great loss to our community. Tom really lived out what he believed in - being kind and respectful. He was a very principled person - always looking to do good things for other people."

Added fellow religion teacher Rick Bohne: "He did a very good job of relating the classroom material to the real world of their lives. That's important, and that's very difficult, especially in religion."

Mr. Ash grew up in Youngstown.

He worked his way through Youngstown State University as an undertaker's assistant.

Mr. Ash became a teacher and assistant principal at St. Edward Junior High School in Youngstown. He moved to Cincinnati in 1977 to study for the priesthood at Mount St. Mary Seminary of the West.

"That's where he met his wife," Cronin said.

And he decided to switch tracks. He completed a master's degree in theology at the Athenaeum of Ohio in 1980 and took a job teaching religion at Badin High School. He married Patricia Tighe during a Halloween day ceremony in 1982.

Mr. Ash became director of religious education at Guardian Angels School in the early 1980s and was later the religious chair at Summit Country Day School.

He decided to switch tracks again and received a master's degree in hospital administration from Xavier University and went to work at Mercy Hamilton Hospital before joining the Moeller faculty six years ago.

"Teaching was his first love, so he came back to it, which takes a lot of courage," Cronin said.

Survivors include his wife, Patricia Tighe Ash; two sons, Kevin, a college student, and Christopher, a senior at Moeller; daughter, Kathleen, a sophomore at Mount Notre Dame High School, and a sister, Joan Ash of Youngstown.

Mass of Christian burial is 10:30 a.m. today at All Saints Church, 8939 Montgomery Road, Kenwood. Burial will be at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Montgomery.

Memorials: Moeller High School, 9001 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, 45236 or Hospice of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 633597, Cincinnati, OH 45236-3597.

Karen Vance contributed. E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com