About
Tom is an award-winning author, educator and trainer with 30 years of experience in strategic planning, project management, and professional development, including 18 years in public health; the last 12 serving as the emergency manager for the coastal region of South Carolina. Born in Chicago, he completed graduate studies at Southern Illinois University, and moved to South Carolina in 1980. Russo’s leadership skills were recognized in 1985 when he received the Clayton Frost Memorial Award at the U.S. Jaycees National Convention. In 2008, he earned the IAEM Certified Emergency Manager (CEM), a pledge to public safety, disaster response and community resilience. In 2010, Russo graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security, and awarded a Master’s in homeland security and defense
Mission
Ironically, this personal mission was written at some 25 years ago. Yet, I come back to it in 2025 with the publication of Wilson & Baruch that speaks to America’s quest for National Preparedness; our collective need “Be Prepared!”
The notion of being prepared captured my attention when I had committed the Boy Scout oath to memory. My grandmother preached that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. I took it literally and cultivated a healthy lifestyle, ate wisely, worked to maintain some level of fitness and worked to be environmentally sensitive. I took old bed sheets, all white, cut them up into various widths and roll them as bandages.
Since then, I came to the conclusion that preparedness (for local emergencies) is not unlike living a healthy lifestyle...each requires us to engage in activity with the promise of some future reward for which there is no guarantee; the hope, its outcome will ward off the threats we seek to avoid! Today, preparedness takes the form of Homeland Security and keeps the liberties and freedom we inherited safe for future generations. Boomers grew up during the cold war, never realizing that threat cast a shadow on the task of growing up. Today, brings new threats. We find those liberties, once taken for granted, and now compromised, for the security of living in a free society.
Avocation
I grew up tinkering with bicycles, scooters, motorcycles and eventually cars. I recall the Eagle scooter always required the kick starter key to be replaced as I constantly was shearing it off. But it was wheels and quite cool for a fourteen-year old. Then came a Honda CB 160 and the Honda Boys as we became known by classmates. Regarded as a group of guys that hung out with their Honda bikes; we toured, scrambled and even evaded a few patrol vehicles. All of which culminated with a Honda CB 160 drag bike that was raced at Oswego Drag Raceway. The bikes were cool but by eighteen, cars became more interesting and could accommodate passengers.
My first new car was a 1967 Chevy II SuperSport with a 327/275 four-speed. In that year, Chevy dropped the 327/350 but I went out and bought an over the counter engine and sported it with a Holley carburetor, honed out the heads, added a cam and other modifications I no longer can recall. A group of us drag raced at Oswego but we also found our way onto the streets both winning and losing $ much to the chagrin of friends who loved to watch that SS leap out of the whole with its 456:1 rear-end and eight-inch Mickey Thompson slicks. At the track...it was consistent high twelves; for the curious. All of which is to answer why the intrigue with America's Sports Car...the Corvette. When I bought that Chevy II, I wanted a Corvette but couldn't afford the $5,200 price tag. I settled with a $3.000 Chevy II which today would cost me $30,000! Go figure!
Today…I love wheels and, especially, those that deliver speed! And probably why I love cycling on my Tarmac, roller skating with Turbos and driving America’s Sports Car; the Corvette.
A Novice Gardner
"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden...But though an old man, I am but a young gardener."
Thomas Jefferson wrote this to Charles W. Peale, August 20, 1811. Whether it is Monticello, Hobcaw Barony, Brookgreen Gardens or a backyard sanctuary, each offers rewards to visitors for the labor required to nurture its gifts. The joys of digging in the earth, playing tug-o-war with briar roots, weeds and volunteers that drive to takeover good garden deeds...much of which, at some point, was nothing more than a sand dune decades ago. Each spring after compost, mulching and TLC, gardens come alive with earthworms, bugs and colorful rewards for visitors 365 days a year with something in bloom each day. Frequently visitors include a variety of our aviary friends from cardinals, Carolina chick-a-dees to owls, hawks and the bone rattling Pileated Woodpecker. Even ground critters find their way to one’s sanctuary, to include possums and raccoons all of which stirs a frenzy with my faithful canine companion. Peter Hatch captured Monticello with a message that is simple, “Where is your ‘Rich Spot of Earth.’" Hatch served as the gardener, restoring the 1,200 acre Monticello to Thomas Jefferson’s vision and wrote A Rich Spot of Earth.
An Environmental Ethic
As an SIU graduate student, I had a summer job that I biked to, some remote open field where my mission was to count rabbit nests. Boring, but I found solace with bird wildlife and found their antics entertaining, their markings distinctive and their habitat, curious. I invested in a set of binoculars to study further. I could take in the sounds of aviary visitors and visually identify who those characters are. Needless to say, it became a passion to this day. Hiking, trail rides over the years, all carried forward to Hobcaw Barony, as well as my back yard. All caught my interest when a quiet environment would reveal the quiet world of wildlife. Creatures that were here well before I time. Today, bike rides and trails take me through some rather interesting habitats, both rural and urban/rural interface. For the past five years, an Osprey nest took hold in the Carolina Opry parking lot.
