Terry Tomalin

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Many conversations, especially with those who enjoy Lake Maggoire and the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve and/or were his students at USF-St. Petersburg, felt that Terry Tomalin, Tampa Bay Times’ outdoors-fitness editor and an instructor at USF-St. Petersburg, was either their hero or standard-bearer.

 

Upon his sudden heart attack death at age 55 (May 19, 2016), a student in his last USFSP class of Leadership in the Great Outdoors course said his last course was about more him than just a lesson plan.  [He was] courageous, loyal and of course adventurous. I wish I could find a better word for adventurous because his stories... you wouldn't believe some of them! Holly Ebbert

 

Friday, May 19, 2017, the community then gathered for a public celebration of Tomalin's life and to announce  the creation Terry Tomalin Memorial Scholarship offered to students who share a love for the great outdoors, just like Tomalin.

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I think the scholarship will allow Mr. Tomalin's legacy to continue. It will allow for people not to forget the type of person that he was and the kind of impact he made

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Finally, his impact upon fellow USFSP faculty member Thomas Hallcock led to a student project resulting in the book Salt Creek Journal and thus generating a dialogue that many of us hope will lead the City of Saint Petersburg to honor Terry in some everlasting memorial in the Lake Maggoire, Boy Hill Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, Dell Homes Park area that he so very much loved.

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