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.