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Tom Gillespie
photo: N.C. Zoo
For 30 years, Tom has been involved in journalism & photojournalism as a writer, photographer, magazine editor, newspaper reporter, instructor (journalism & photography), freelance magazine journalist and photographer.
After serving on nuclear submarines for four years in the U.S. Navy, Tom left the military in 1971 and graduated from Randolph Community College in 1974 with an A.A.S. degree in photography. After working for several years for the South Carolina Educational TV Network in Columbia, S.C., he moved to Asheville, N.C., where he worked as a freelance magazine photojournalist as owner of Camera South.
Beginning in 1980, Tom started a 16-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard as a photographer, journalist, videographer, media-relations specialist, and public affairs specialist & manager. While in the Coast Guard, he was an instructor at the military’s Defense Information School, where he taught journalism & advanced photojournalism, and worked on loan to the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va., as a staff writer. Also while in the Coast Guard, he received a scholarship to attend Syracuse University, where he received his B.S. degree in Journalism.
During the first Gulf War in 1991, he was the Coast Guard liaison at the Joint Information Bureau in Saudi Arabia, where he escorted news media personnel into the war zones and wrote feature stories for the Coast Guard magazine The Bulletin, documenting Coast Guard involvement in the war in Kuwait.
After retiring from the military in 1996, Tom worked as senior editor for Outdoor Traveler magazine in Charlottesville, Va., until it ceased publication (hopefully, not because of Tom’s editing). In 1998, he worked briefly as the Marketing Manager at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown before coming to the zoo that same year. As part of his public affairs-specialist duties at the Zoo, he writes a feature column, “Zoo Tales,” that appears in about 25 newspapers and magazines across the state.
During his career, his work has appeared in regional, national and international magazines and newspapers, including Time, The New York Times, National Review, USAToday, all major wire services, most major East Coast newspapers, international magazines in Germany (Stern), Greece (ENA), Great Britain and on national & international websites.
His awards have included the “Weinberger Award,” presented to federal employees “for excellence in photography;” two Joint Service Commendation Awards, for both his work as a military instructor and for his work during the Gulf War; and the Coast Guard Commendation Award, for "outstanding contributions in Coast Guard journalism & public affairs." Tom is a native of Hendersonville, N.C., and presently lives in Trinity with his wife, Debra. They have two adult sons, Zachary and Evan.
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N.C. Zoo is a member institution of AZA and an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr. Secretary; Michael F. Easley, Governor. A part of the North Carolina Government portal.
The Zoo is closed Christmas day and during severe weather. Call our information line at: 1-800-488-0444.
