When students walked into Thomas Lieb’s classroom, they knew a good grade wouldn’t be handed to them.

Lieb, a communications professor at Towson University, had a reputation for being a hard grader. But it wasn’t because he was mean or harsh — it was actually the opposite. Lieb saw the potential of his students, and he pushed them to reach it.

“He made me want to work hard,” said Jeff Koslofsky, a former student. “His passion for the field rubbed off on me and made me care more and want to do well.”

Koslofsky is just one of the hundreds of students Lieb taught over more than 30 years and who are now remembering the role he played in their lives. Lieb died on Oct. 13 of tonsil cancer that spread to his liver. He was 73.

Lieb was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 16, 1952. His father, Robert Lieb, was an engineer for Amtrak and his mother, Catherine Boyle, was a homemaker. He was one of three boys, including a younger brother, Brandon, and an older brother, Bob, who passed away in 2020.

Every year, the family went to New York City to see theater productions. Lieb also grew up playing tennis and was passionate about photography and music. When he was a child, he developed spinal meningitis and had to relearn how to walk.

Lieb graduated from Point Park University in Pittsburgh in 1975. He got his master’s degree from Syracuse University in magazine journalism in 1978 and earned his Ph.D. in public communications from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1991.

He spent the majority of his career teaching journalism at Towson University and retired in 2022.

“You could see firsthand how much he connected with students and how involved he was,” said Mark Sullivan, a journalism and media studies professor at Towson who met Lieb during graduate school in the 1980s.

Lieb loved cycling and once biked across the country. In his free time, he’d go for rides spanning 80 or 100 miles around the region. He continued to bike even while he was battling cancer.

He also loved the finer things in life, including high end chocolate, wine and sushi. He frequently had friends over to sample chocolate, playing one of his hundreds of records or turning on a movie with his surround sound speakers.

“He had a really refined taste,” Sullivan said. “We’d go record shopping and then go to the chocolate shop. That was a typical hang for us.”

Lieb loved to host movie nights at his home to showcase his speakers, as well.

Beth Haller, one of Lieb’s Towson colleagues, said he had a “whole screening system” in his house, where she would join him for movies and sushi.

She eats gluten-free, and recalled how Lieb cooked special meals to accommodate her.

“He would go out of his way to make food that I could eat, that’s the kind of person he was,” Haller said. “And it tasted amazing, always.”

Haller met Lieb in 1991 at a watch party at the University of Maryland for the finale of the television show “Twin Peaks.” He convinced her to work with him at Towson, and the two became close.

“Towson has an excellent program because of Thom,” Haller said. “He really shepherded us into the modern age.”

Lieb convinced his department to get rid of its wet lab for photos and move its photography program to digital, Haller recalled. He was active in the Online News Association, and would take students to the programs hosted by the organization.

“He loved giving the students lots of information that would make them successful in their careers,” Haller said. “That’s what Thom was all about.”

Nick DiMarco, who took two classes with Lieb, said he was “ahead of the curve” in his love of digital journalism.

“He was one of the early voices that captured what journalism would become,” DiMarco recalled.

When he found out Lieb was sick, DiMarco was one of many former students to write his former professor a letter. He still has Lieb’s response saved on his phone.

“You made me reflect again on how lucky I was to spend my career surrounded by bright and talented young people and watching them grow,” Lieb wrote, less than a month before he died. “I hope you keep reaching for new stars to aim for.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.