RIP Tooker Gomberg
More sad news: Tooker Gomberg·, a heroic environmental activist, has taken his own life·. I knew Tooker just a little: he stayed at my house in Vermont several years ago while travelling across the country by public transit and bicycle with his wife Angela. I’ve also received his frequent email missives over the years. The man had incredible energy, charisma, and a great sense of humor. One of his fellow city legislators described him thus:
He called him a man of conviction who walked or pedalled his bike or rode on public transit rather than drive a polluting vehicle.
He wore clothes of natural fibres, he recycled, he composted and he gardened.
“I have never seen anyone who walked the talk like Tooker did,” he said. “He lived what he preached.”
Also see this tribute, “He was the Grain of Sand that Stopped the Machine”:
Tooker was bold, daring and defiant. He had spunk and chutzpah. He put his body on the line. Many times, he crossed that line. His mottoes were: From the ground up. Word to mouth. Small scale. Grassroots. Guerrilla gardening-style. He was the grain of sand that stopped the machine. Every day of his life was a renewed chance to change the world.
One tiny detail of his passing that seems particularly tragic to me: they found his bicycle and helmet on the bridge he jumped off. The image of Tooker putting on a helmet to bike to the spot where he would die is hard to accept.