Tom served as a board member for the History Center between 1999 and 2014. He served as Executive Director from 2014 to 2019, and is now the Director of Outreach. Tom was an instructor of Observational Astronomy at Ohio University for thirty years. He has spent the past twenty-five years as a student of Ohio history researching its geography and settlement, the mound builders, Ohio canals, and several of its interesting characters and their stories.

Tom’s interest in history was awakened by working to clean up roadways and streams and stumbled into the remnants of the Hocking Valley Canal while running the Athens County Recycling and Litter Control program. He also had the unique experience of living at the Athens Asylum during his college years which gives him a valuable perspective on one of the biggest historical sites in Southeastern Ohio.