Patrick Henry Tallman

tallman

Patrick Henry Tallman
(Track/Cross Country, 1961)

This 2012 Danbury High Hall of Fame inductee, was a member of the team that won four major championships including the Connecticut State Open in the fall of 1960, Patrick Tallman. That season, the Danbury High Cross Country team continued their string of 23 consecutive dual meet victories to 33. Aside from their State Open Championship, the team also won the Fairfield County and LL State Championships. While at DHS, Patrick was also a member of the Track team. After his graduation from Danbury High School, Patrick continued his education at Central Connecticut State University, receiving a BS degree in Elementary Education/Psychology in 1965 and an MS degree in Counseling and Guidance in 1970. In 1983 he earned a certificate from the Black Ministries Program at the Hartford Seminary. A member of the Army 101st Airborne Division, Patrick was wounded in the Vietnam War and received the Purple Heart Medal. Patrick’s distinguished career in education included teaching positions in the Danbury school system and as a counselor in the Hartford school system at Lewis Fox Middle School, Bulkeley High School and until his retirement in 2003, Weaver High School. Among the many awards Patrick received included Hartford Teacher of the Year, (1981), the Governor’s Service Award from the Jaycees (1982), A+ Teacher Award (1985), Outstanding Community Service from the Hartford Negro and Professional Women (1985), Black Man of the Year (Delta Sigma Sorority 1991), Committed Adult to the Children of Hartford (1992), and the Alliance 21st Century Award from Central Connecticut State University (1997). Patrick was a member of many professional and civic organizations including the Hartford Parent Network, the Union Baptist Church, the Connecticut School Counselor Association, Disabled American Veterans, NAACP, and Phi Delta Kappa. He also sponsored a Martin Luther King Jr. Book Award at Weaver High School and Lewis Fox Middle School. As a distinguished educator, Patrick urged his students to ‘seize the day’ and ‘stand and be counted’. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Schweitzer, he encouraged and counseled his students to dream and achieve their goals.