Harlem’s IS 195 Renamed in Honor of Terence Tolbert
Mayor Bloomberg announced at a packed funeral service held at IS 195 in Harlem that the school would now be known as the Terence D. Tolbert Education Complex in honor of the lobbying chief. Tolbert attended IS 195 before moving on to the Bronx High School of Science.
Mr. Tolbert’s résumé listed over 20 campaigns since 1989. He received a lot of flack for crossing party lines a few years back for his show of support in Mayor Bloomberg’s reelection. He is quoted as saying in an 2005 New York Times article that, Mr. Bloomberg is the only Republican he could work for. He denied that he was hired simply to mobilize the black vote, a role he played in John Edwards’s presidential primary campaign: “Yes, I happen to be African-American by an accident of birth, but when somebody says, ‘So, you’re the black political strategist for Michael Bloomberg,’ I say, “No, I’m a senior adviser.’”
Tolbert, who died of a heart attack at the age of 44, was doing what he was most passion about on that fateful day in November; He was serving as the Operations Director of the Nevada leg of President-elect Obama’s presidential campaign. Mr. Tolbert is quoted as saying, “But campaigns are in my blood, I can’t watch from the outside.” He died two days before Obama secured victory in the presidential election, and won the battleground state of Nevada.
By: D. Bell with excerpts from The NY Times
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