Obituaries

Toliver's Legacy Recalled at UMBC Memorial

Students speak of life lessons from late scholars program director, colleagues speak of a loving friend.

Hundreds of students, alumni, faculty and staff filled UMBC's University Center ballroom for a noon memorial service to celebrate the life of LaMont Toliver, the director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program and assistant dean of undergraduate studies who died suddenly while at work on Feb. 28.

After the UMBC Gospel Choir and Jubilee Singers performed "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and "Total Praise," speakers in turn shared their impressions of Toliver during an hour-long ceremony punctuated with tears and laughter.

"Did you know LaMont? If you said yes, you have at least one story or humorous tale to tell," said Earnestine Baker, executive director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, who hired Toliver 23 years ago. "I have many, and will cherish and remember them forever."

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"Unlike anybody else I have ever known, LaMont Toliver could deliver life lessons in a phrase," said Diane Lee, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education. "We only have to look around here today to see LaMont made a difference—to staff, to faculty, to students, to colleagues, to friends and certainly to his family."

"What I have is what the soon-to-be 1,000 Meyerhoff alumni have; respect for a man who loved each one of us as individuals, respect for a man who demonstrated consistency in his commitment to the program, and respect for a mentor and friend," said William A. Christian, who completed the scholars program in 1993.

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"Even in his passing, he has provided a living legacy that I will never forget," said Cheryl Miller, associate dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, who told the assembled group that she spent time reading emails from Toliver that had not yet been deleted. "His emails were a thing of beauty," she said. 

UMBC president Freeman Hrabowski spoke at length about Toliver's background and devotion to his wife, Lisa, and their four sons.

Hrabowski described Toliver as having the voice of James Earl Jones and the heart of Mother Theresa. "He gave and gave and gave, with a smile," he said.

The loss felt throughout the UMBC campus is an unavoidable cost of human experience, Hrabowski said. "Grief is the price we pay for love," he said. "The deeper the love, the deeper the grief."


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