Thomas S. Mulligan, 73, a prize-winning journalist who broke stories from the trading floors of Wall Street to the war zones of Iraq, died Monday from complications of cancer. He lived in Providence with his wife of more than 45 years, fellow journalist Irene M. Wielawski.

A Boston native raised in Scituate and Milton, MA, Tom began his career in the Boston State House bureau of the Associated Press, then reported for the South Middlesex News (now MetroWest) before joining the Providence Journal in Rhode Island where he rose to financial editor. From there he went to the Los Angeles Times, where he served for more than 20 years as an editor and reporter.

Among many honors, Tom shared in the Pulitzer Prizes awarded to the Times for coverage of the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and the Northridge earthquake of 1994. Along the way, he built an army of devoted friends and colleagues who knew him variously as a master storyteller, tenacious athlete, passionate music fan, and family man without peer.

One of eight brothers and sisters, Tom was a son of John E. Mulligan Jr. and Frances M. Hennessey, and a stepson of Mary O’Gorman Mulligan, all deceased. He went to Milton (MA) High School, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1973, and later earned two master’s degrees.

Tom and Irene met at the Providence Journal in 1978, and they were married a few months later. Their children, Emily and Andrew, spent their early school years in Providence. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1989 when Tom and Irene, a health care journalist, received job offers from the Times.

Tom joined as deputy business editor. He later returned to reporting and was assigned to the Times’ New York bureau in 1996. His beat was Wall Street, but he routinely covered national stories, such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Enron trial in Houston. He was revered for his readiness to take on the toughest jobs, including a stint in Baghdad in 2004. He capped his career in the New York office of Sitrick and Co., a strategic communications firm.

The family home during the New York years was in Pound Ridge, NY, a small town in Northern Westchester County. There, Tom, who had captained his high school track cross-country team and played club hockey at Bowdoin, enthusiastically took up racquet sports—tennis and paddle tennis—at the Pound Ridge Tennis Club. He served as president for eight years in flagrant violation of the club’s two-year limit because the board wouldn’t let him quit. He was never satisfied with his topspin, but the friendships forged on various courts were special and enduring.

Tom and Irene returned to Providence in 2021 after Tom retired, reconnecting with friends from their Providence Journal days and happy to be back among Tom’s large extended family in New England. The last weekend of his life was a happy one—a concert of piano concertos at the Rhode Island Philharmonic, followed by Sunday morning pickleball and an eighth-birthday videocall with his eldest grandchild.

Surviving are Tom’s wife, Irene; daughter, Emily A. Foley, her husband, Joseph, and their sons Thomas, James, and Peter, of Fort Worth, TX; son Andrew E. Mulligan, his wife, Caitlyn, and their daughter, Mar, of Chicago, IL; brothers and sisters John E. Mulligan III and wife, Nancy, of Rumford, RI, Gregory F. Mulligan and wife, Robin, of Barrington, RI, Tara M. Mulligan of Framingham, MA, Joseph J. Mulligan and wife, JoAnne, of Walpole, MA, Rosemary K. Oldread and husband, David, of Wilbraham, MA, Patrick R. Mulligan and wife, Jaime, of Milton, MA, and Maeve E. Hart and husband, Kevin, of Milton, MA; and many nieces, nephews, cousins and dear friends.

All are invited to a wake at the Dolan Funeral Home, 460 Granite Ave., East Milton, MA, on Monday, June 10, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will follow on Tuesday at 11 a.m. at St. Pius X Church, 101 Walcott Rd., Milton. Burial will be private.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Mulligan Family Scholarship Fund, care of the Women’s Civic Club of Katonah. Checks should be made out to WCCK and sent to PO Box 122, Katonah, NY 10536.