Tom Wisner

Tom Wisner (June 29, 1930 – April 2, 2010) was an American folk musician, activist, and educator. Known as the "Bard of the Chesapeake," Wisner wrote hundreds of poems and songs about life around the Chesapeake Bay.

Early life and education Tom Wisner was born in 1930 in Washington, D.C. He grew up in D.C. and in Prince George's County, spending time with family along the James River in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

He graduated from Anacostia High School in 1950 and volunteered for the Korean War, fighting with the U.S. Air Force, at his father's urging.

Wisner then returned to Maryland, where he eventually became an educator at the University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory until his retirement in the late 1990s.

Music Wisner established himself as a folk singer beginning in the mid-1960s, writing and singing songs about the Chesapeake Bay. Over his career, he produced hundreds of poems and songs on the subject, earning him the title "Bard of the Chesapeake." The 1979 album Chesapeake Born was recorded by Folkways Records, and some of its songs were included in Smithsonian Folkways' Classic Maritime Music compilation. In that period, he also taught a course about the Chesapeake at the University of Maryland, College Park.

In 1999, he co-founded Chestory, the Center for the Chesapeake Story.

Death and legacy Wisner died in 2010 at age 79. The following year, his collaborator Sara Ebenreck Leeland published a book of Wisner's writings, titled Gather ’Round Chesapeake: Tom Wisner’s Vision.