Inside Furman September, 2002

Inside Furman is published monthly during the school year by the Furman University Department of Marketing and Public Relations. For story ideas, e-mail John Roberts, editor.

Leap of faith
New job as alumni director is career change for Tom Triplitt

Tom Triplitt had an ideal, comfortable life. After 25 years in education, he was serving as the principal of a private middle school in his hometown of Columbus, Ga.

He and his wife, Diane, had three daughters, two of them teen-agers. Triplitt loved his job and, at 48, felt stable and settled. Changing careers and uprooting his family seemed unthinkable.

But a round of golf in June with Gary Clark changed all of that.

Clark, Furman's athletic director, urged Triplitt to apply for Furman's vacant alumni director post. The pair were more than friends, having worked together at Spartanburg Day School from 1987-91.

After their conversation, other Furman friends began calling Triplitt to echo Clark's sentiments. It took some convincing, but Triplitt eventually decided to update his resumé and send it in.

"I had a great job and was not desperate, so I felt no pressure during the interview," he says.

A few weeks after that round of golf, the Triplitts posted a "for sale" sign in their front yard and began packing their bags for the move to Greenville. "It happened so quickly that I feel this was meant to be," he says.

Was it a leap of faith?

"Well, yes," he says slowly. "But I guess more so for Furman. I've never done this [kind of work]."

Triplitt, a 1976 Furman graduate with a degree in biology, had recently reconnected with his alma mater through his oldest daughter, Pearce, who graduated in May.

"My daughter had a wonderful experience here," he says. "Furman did all the right things for her. Knowing this made coming here more comfortable."

Triplitt enrolled at Furman in 1972 with notions of pursuing a pre-med track, but "taking chemistry changed things for me," he says with a laugh.

At Furman, he met his future wife, Diane Wedgworth, who was on the Furman swim team. They were married in 1978. After graduation, Triplitt's first job was teaching biology and physical science at Sumter High School.

From 1979 to 1987 he taught and coached at Christ School in Arden, N.C. He went to Spartanburg Day in 1987 and remained there until 1991, when he moved to Columbus to take over as middle school principal at Brookstone School.

As director of the Furman Alumni Association, Triplitt says he "wants to find more ways to reach out and connect with the broad spectrum of Furman alumni."

"I think we have done an excellent job with our 20- and 30-somethings," he says. "I would like to build on that success with all of our alumni."

For now, though, Triplitt is busy putting names with faces and looking forward to Homecoming October 18-20, where he will greet former classmates and friends for the first time as alumni director.

It will take him at least that long to get used to his spacious office in Cherrydale.

"My old office wasn't much bigger than a cubicle. If parents were mad at me they had to take a number because I couldn't fit more than one in my space," he says while admiring the panoramic view of the campus from his second-story window. "This is really nice."