The University of Tampa recently suffered the loss of former Professor Alan Weimer. On Sept. 1, Professor Weimer passed away at age 55 after a battle with cancer.
“He really fought the good fight,” says Professor Rustogi, a close friend and colleauge of Weimer. “The fact that he fought so hard for so long was reflective of the kind of person he was.”
Born in Virgina, Professor Weimer moved to Tampa in 1991 with his wife Evelyn after living for some time in the Washington D.C. and San Francisco areas. Weimer was a professor of entrepreneurship, management and business strategy at the Sykes College of Business. He was also the former director of UT’s MBA program and director of the Naimoli Institute of Business Strategy. Weimer was diagnosed with cancer last April.
“He was warm, especially beloved by his students,” siad Professor George Wynn. “He always cared about the welfare of all of his students and truly became involved in their lives at a personal and professional level. I would say he had the best qualities that any professor should have with respect for caring for the lives of his students.”
From a colleauge perspective, Professor Wynn described Weimer as “always warm and inviting and participative with colleauges.”
Professor Weimer’s career in business also reached outside of UT. The founder of Bizkidz, a program that provides leadership by bringing at-risk and inner-city youth to UT to learn business and entrepreneurship skills, Weimer sometimes incorporated his outside work with the University. Professor Weimer was also a senior entrepreneurship teacher with the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
“He was a very special teacher,” said Rustogi. “He devoted his life to teaching young people.”
Memorial services for Professor Alan Weimer were held on Sept. 5 at Trinity Memorial Gardens, and he was laid to rest in Gan Shalom Cemetery. It was requested that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to LifePath Hospice of Tampa, the National Children’s Cancer Society, or the Humane Society of Tampa Bay.