Remembering Tom Floyd
By C. David Floyd
Tom Floyd was born in Bergman, Arkansas in 1932 and grew up in the Midwest.
Tom began his long career as a civilian civil service employee of the US Government. His first job was in hospital management on Army bases in Texas. He transferred to Washington DC and began working for the Department of Interior in personnel management.
During his long career in Washington DC Tom was involved in trail building and trail easements for the Appalachian Trail and other trails in the Virginia area. He was a PATC volunteer and leader. He wrote two books published by PATC: “Lost Trails and Forgotten People: The Story of Jones Mountain” and “Diary of a Trail,” the story of the people who built the Tuscarora Trail. Tom Floyd Wayside is an AT shelter with many campsites just north of SNP.
His vacation time was spent in Arizona, where Tom developed a love and fascination of Grand Canyon. He did multiple back county backpacking expeditions of 9-to-20-days. In 1974 he became one of the first few to thru-hike the entire Grand Canyon National Park.
Early retirement found Tom living a few yards from the AT in Virginia in a cabin with an outdoor privy. Then he went to a resort in northeast Oklahoma and then to the old family house at Harmon, AR bought by his parents after World War II. As time passed, Tom spent less time in any house, as he traveled far and wide across North America. He lived in travel trailers, pick-up campers and finally in his trailerable houseboat that doubled as a camping trailer or lake cruiser. His buddies on his travels were his succession of beloved dogs: MD, King George, and Largo.
His final travels found him living proudly as a “full timer” with no house and no real address. In Arizona, the state of his youth, he would follow the seasons and weather camping in his SUV with Largo. Age and time brought Tom again to Tulsa, Oklahoma to be near relatives in an assisted living facility, his final camp. At age 93, Tom broke camp and moved on, continuing his travels. Undoubtedly, Tom is again somewhere in Grand Canyon hiking down the trail.
<<Previous Article Back Home Next Article>>