Terry L. McPherson, tech training director
Terry L. McPherson, a director of technology training who was active with his wife in youth basketball programs, died Dec. 14 from heart disease at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Bowie resident was 61.
Terry Lamar McPherson, the son of Nora McPherson Gilmore, was born and raised in Thomasville, Georgia, where he graduated in 1976 from Thomasville High School.
He enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground and later in Washington. In 1983, he entered Officer Candidate School and was commissioned a lieutenant. He was discharged in 1993 from the Army with the rank of captain.
While stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Mr. McPherson entered Methodist College, now Methodist University, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1987 in business administration. He received a master’s degree in technology systems management in 1993 from the University of Maryland, formerly the University of Maryland University College.
In 2018, he began studying for a Ph.D. in cybersecurity and information assurance at North Central University in Minneapolis.
From 1995 to 2001, he was director of technology-based training for Pricewaterhouse Cooper LLP in Philadelphia and later worked in a similar capacity with the Diversity Channel and MedStar Health. At his death he was working for MuniEdPro for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board in Washington.
“As the director of MuniEdPro,, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking board’s (MSRB) online courses designed specifically for municipal market participants, Terry worked tirelessly,” Ritta McLaughlin, MSRB’s chief education officer, wrote in an email.
“The consummate professional, Terry engaged municipal market subject matter experts to support development and administration of then free interactive courses, developed by the MSRB,” she wrote. “His professionalism, diligence and upbeat nature will be missed by all who worked with him.”
In addition to his professional career, Mr. McPherson owned and operated TLM & Associates, a tax preparation business, for more than two decades.
In 1982, he married the former Denise Robinson, the executive assistant to the CEO, CFO and CLO of Iridium Communications in McLean, Virginia.
Mr. McPherson and his wife were active in youth athletics in Bowie. Mr. McPherson was basketball commissioner of youth basketball from 1999 to 2002 for the Bowie Boys and Girls Club.
In 2002, he and his wife founded the Metro Sixers Basketball Club, which was active from 2002 to 2013. The couple was also recognized for operating well-organized and competitive annual fall and winter basketball leagues and tournaments throughout the year.
Since 1989, Mr. McPherson was a member of the Columbia chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. and also its Baltimore chapter.
He was a longtime member of Bethel A.M.E. Church in Baltimore and since 2009 was a parishioner of Reid Temple A.M.E. Church in Glenn Dale, Prince George’s County.
Mr. McPherson’s hobbies included traveling and home improvement projects.
Funeral services were Friday at Bethel Assembly of God in Savage.
In addition to his wife of 37 years and his mother, Mr. McPherson is survived by a son, Robert McPherson of White Marsh; a daughter, Lauren McPherson of Bowie; three brothers, Howard Gilmore of Bessemer, Alabama, Larry McPherson of Birmingham, Alabama, and Robert Gilmore of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania; and many nieces and nephews.