Tonio Palmer, former director of entrepreneurship at the ’68 Center for Career Exploration, died on April 28, President of the College Maud S. Mandel announced in a statement. He was 65 years old and battled with a rare cancer, ocular melanoma. Palmer worked at the College from 2017 until his retirement earlier this year. His coworkers at the College, the students whom he mentored, and members of his home community in Tyringham, Mass., remember Palmer as a dedicated teacher, creative powerhouse, and loving friend.
Palmer was born in New York City and also spent parts of his childhood in Tyringham, Rio de Janeiro, and Eberstadt, Germany. After graduating from Bowdoin in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in German and economics, he spent a year traveling across the United States in a 1968 Volkswagen camper van, according to an obituary published by his family. Palmer then worked in New York City and attended the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he received a master’s in international studies and an MBA.
In 2008, Palmer settled in Tyringham with his wife and their three children. While he lived there, he coached the boys tennis team at Lenox Memorial High School, sat on the Tyringham finance committee, coached soccer, and raised chickens and goats.
Palmer’s career at the College began in 2017 when he was hired as entrepreneur-in-residence, after which he became the director of entrepreneurship. Don Kjelleren, executive director of the ’68 Center, recalled the enthusiasm Palmer brought to their first interview meeting. “He literally blew us away … [with] his personal affectation, his energy, his charisma, his vision. We were just like ‘wow, Williams students are going to gravitate towards this,’” Kjelleren told the Record.
As director of entrepreneurship, Palmer developed a number of career-development programs meant to engage students in emerging industries. He created and taught a Winter Study course that brought students to the Bay Area to explore startup companies; the Venture Pitch Competition, which solicited student ideas for entrepreneurial endeavors; and the Williams Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship (WSIE), where students could spend the summer working on venture projects, according to Kjelleren.
Manager of Alumni and Parent Engagement Programs Dawn M. Dellea, who worked closely with Palmer during his time at the College, reflected on his ability to connect with the students he worked with. “He was able to generate so much excitement for the [Venture Pitch Competition],” she said in an interview with the Record. “He brought different perspectives and different people, and he didn’t focus on what the final product was. He was more interested in generating ideas and getting students excited about that.”
Kjelleren, who traveled with Palmer’s Winter Study course twice, remembered Palmer’s ability to go the extra mile for his students. “He would lead bicycle and hiking trips, and students would jump in the ocean — it was just all this extra stuff,” he said. “He would make sure it was item after item.”
Dellea also recalled Palmer’s caring dedication to his work. After Palmer officially retired this spring due to his health complications, he returned to help his colleagues who were working on a new venture pitch, spending four hours helping them out. “He cared so much about how we were doing and how the students would react [to the pitch],” Dellea said.
Students with whom Palmer worked at the ’68 Center shared similar stories about his commitment to building an entrepreneurial community at the College and to helping them with their career paths. “He was so effective at getting students to know themselves and develop their interests,” Pierre Cativiela ’24 told the Record. “And that’s the job of the Career Center, but it’s such a strong personal attribute as well, because at first he was my advisor, and then he became my friend… He really got the best out of everyone around him.”
Dylan Safai ’26 took part in the pitch competition that Palmer managed and remembered Palmer’s dedication to the student participants. “We had an idea of sorts, but we didn’t know what to do. So, we met with him nine times over the span of two weeks, and he was always able to take time and meet with us,” Safai said in an interview with the Record.
Within the regular capacities of his job at the College, Palmer also made sure to bring fun to his work. “He would always advocate for using funds to get pizza at events,” Cativiela said. Dellea recalled how Palmer, at a costume themed potluck, showed up in a squid hat. “He dressed up as a ‘squid-pro-quo,’” she said.
Nini Gilder, a relative and long-time neighbor of Palmer’s in Tyringham, similarly reflected on Palmer’s involvement in his community and devotion to those around him. “He had a regular running race around this valley at Thanksgiving — even last year he was out there supervising it,” Gilder said in an interview with the Record. “We all had a great example of someone who could live his life very actively, up to the time he died.”
In the weeks before his passing, Palmer spared no effort in being around the ones he loved. Despite already being in hospice care, he made a trip to Germany in April to be present at the birth of his first grandchild, Gilder told the Record.
Back in Tyringham, Palmer also made an effort to give back to his community. “A few weeks ago, I was struggling to get some bonfires going, and I texted him for help, and he showed me his method for getting a bonfire going… This involved walking a significant distance to get the stuff and show me how to do it, and I just thought he was so game and eager to teach you something new,” Gilder said.
A memorial for Palmer was held on Sunday, May 5, at Tyringham Union Church in Tyringham.
“The church was packed, from all the pews into the balcony, and we had to add chairs from the basement,” Pastor Janet Mckinstry, who led the service, said in an interview with the Record. “Tonio touched the world … he was so friendly and so welcoming.”
“I chose one passage of scripture that describes Tonio,” she added. “Its ‘you shall know them by their fruits,’ and with that said, all you need to do is look at family and how wonderful and beautiful they are and you know it’s from his parenting and [his wife’s].”
