| School: Cleveland (Commerce) | Graduation Year: 2005 |
Year Inducted: 2016
Sports Played: Cross Country, Soccer, Swimming, Baseball
High School Honors: 4-year Soccer Letterman, Team Captain, Junior and Senior; PIL 2nd Team, Senior.
3-year Cross Country Letterman. Junior and Senior Class Vice President. 3.83 GPA.
4-year Swimming Letterman, PIL Championship Team, Senior; Champion 400-yard medley.
3-year Baseball Letterman, PIL Championship Team, Senior; Team Captain.
Post High School Career: Graduate, Coast Guard Academy, Helicopter Rescue Pilot. Captain, Soccer Team, League Champions, 2008, Baseball Team, 2009. Assistant Coach, Soccer, 2011. Top class graduate in helicopter pilot training. Co-pilot on night training mission when helicopter crashed claiming all four crewman, 2012. Enshrined in Coast Guard Academy’s "Hall of Heroes"; crew awarded medals posthumously for bravery. In 2013, the Cleveland High School Stadium was named the Thomas J. Cameron Memorial Field House. Two scholarships awarded to Cleveland Seniors each Spring in Cameron’s name. Academy awards No. 12 jersey in Cameron’s name to Senior Soccer player who best emulates Cameron’s qualities.
Commentary:
As the mother of Thomas, I have witnessed the passion and devotion to athletics that Thomas exhibited during his short lifetime. His attendance at Cleveland HS and his academic success there was always inspired by the team sport that followed the school day and continued on the weekends. Through sports Thomas inspired himself and his friends to always power through every situation, even as the win appeared at times unattainable.
His participation as a twelve season athlete at CHS aided in his acceptance to the US Coast Guard Academy where participation in sports was required for graduation and where this participation was considered part of the academics.
After graduation from the academy, as an officer in the Coast Guard, Thomas used team sports participation to successfully connect with his military coworkers of all ages. If one tours the inside of the CHS field house, which is dedicated to LT.JG Thomas Cameron, and reads Teddy Roosevelt’s "Man in the Arena" speech displayed in large graphics on the wall, the visitor will understand how Thomas lived this philosophy of Roosevelt:
"It is not the Critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms…who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement…at the worst…that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat."
—Elizabeth Cameron
(A tragic helicopter crash during a night training mission claimed co-pilot Cameron and three other crewmen in February, 2012).