Tom Tumilty

24 December 1938 - 22 March 2013

Thomas George Tumilty was born in Galt (now Cambridge) Ontario. Attended Central public school, Galt Collegiate and graduated from the Hamilton Institute of Technology in Electronic Engineering in 1962. Tom became a Queen Scout in 1955 and attended the World Scout Jamboree in Niagara-On-The-Lake as troop leader for the South Waterloo contingent.

In 1956, Tom learned to scuba dive. He became a NAUI instructor in 1968. This would start a long career in teaching scuba diving and later, underwater photgraphy. He became very interested in marine archaeology and the preservation of one of Canada's unique resources, the many shipwrecks of the Great Lakes. Tom has photographed many of these shipwrecks and published his first book on "Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes" in 1972 which highlighted over 5,000 wrecks. Tom was instrumental in the organization and running of Divemaster Certification Courses and was given the first Divemaster Certification Card No. 001.

Tom was employed by Northern Telecom, Sentrol Systems and from 1981 to 2000, he taught Computer science at Humber College where he developed some 18 text books. Tom has also published books on various topics, including Scuba diving subjects, marine archaeology, and shipwrecks.

Tom was an advid photographer and produced many slide shows both land and underwater. He taught photography at Sheridan College night school for over 25 years. Recently, Tom produced numerous DVDs mostly on nature photogaphy.

After the death of his daughter, Leanne who was tragically killed by an impaired driver, Tom joined an anti-drinking and driving group and later as co-chair, the group developed a programme called "OPERATION LOOKOUT" which requests individuals to report to the police suspected impaired drivers. This programe has gone Canada wide and is supported by over 78 communities.

Tom was working on the update of his shipwreck book with now over 22,000 wrecks listed when he passed away in March, 2013. As it was Tom's wish, all his books and material on Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes have been donated to the Naval Marine Archive so that others may benefit from his year's of research. His work is now indexed in our Ships Database.