Tom Huey, 73, playwright and poet, died Thursday as a result of a car accident. An Alabama native, he was the only child of Judge Thomas Huey Jr. and Elizabeth Sessions Huey. Tom discovered passions for athletics and literature as a young man at Birmingham University Preparatory School. For a time, Tom held the state record for sixty-yard low hurdles. As an undergraduate at the University of Alabama, he competed as part of the track and field team. He earned an MA at Hollins University and an MFA at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he was a Randall Jarrell Fellow. Tom published a novel, four books of poetry, and saw twenty of his plays produced around the country. He received major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council and was Playwright-in-Residence at Guilford College and the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. He also enjoyed a thirty-year career in education at Guilford College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he taught playwriting and creative writing.

Tom's family was more important to him than all of his career accomplishments. One night in 1984, Tom met Wanda Lee at the Rhino in downtown Greensboro, where she soundly beat him in a game of pool. The two were married less than a year later under an oak tree, surrounded by friends and family. They enjoyed 39 years of supportive and loving marriage. Together Tom and Wanda delighted in trips to their beloved Pawleys Island, working the morning crossword, and cheering on the Crimson Tide. They had two daughters, Madeline Huey and Olivia Huey Faggart. In them he instilled keen perceptiveness, deep loves of literature, and wry senses of humor. Tom loved his wife and daughters more than anything. They will miss him enormously.

There will be a memorial gathering at George Brothers' Funeral Home on Saturday, March 9, from 2PM – 4PM. In lieu of flowers, please donate in Tom's name to the North Carolina Arts Council.