Dale Marcus Tersey, a former hydrology and information technology consultant, described as a “Renaissance man” by family and friends, died April 18 after a short battle with fungal meningitis. He was 68.
Tersey died while in rehabilitation at Cornerstone Specialty Hospitals of Southeast Arizona, said his brother Darrell Tersey, a retired wildlife biologist.
Dale Tersey was a founder of Xerocraft, a community resource and tool library for do-it-yourself projects used by hundreds of families and students.
It was formed as a club in 2010 and became a nonprofit in 2013, located in the warehouse district north of downtown, said Jeremy Briddle, a freelance videographer and friend of Tersey’s, among those aiding the public with projects.
“He was a genius who was not scared of fixing anything. Whenever a person dies it is a tragedy, but it is a double tragedy when there is a loss of a person with so much knowledge. I am really going to miss him, miss him greatly,” said Briddle, mentioning Tersey helped get KMKR, a low-power radio station featuring local musicians, on air in 2018.
It is based in a studio in the basement of the Xerocraft building.
Darrell Tersey said his brother’s knowledge included mechanical and electrical engineering, chemistry and science, and his reputation as a fixer master preceded him.
“Dale could fix about anything — be it electric motors, water pumps, engines or computers,” said Darrell Tersey. While the two were in college, they remodeled their mother’s house in Prescott where the brothers were born. It was built in the 1930s and the two ripped up walls, put in doorways and archways, and turned a bedroom into a dining room.
Darrell Tersey chuckled recalling his brother building a still and making moonshine after reading books and learning the process when he was attending Yavapai College.
“Dale and his partner then rented spaces for stills to other kids in Government Canyon,” Darrell Tersey said, letting out a robust laugh.
Dale Tersey attended the University of Arizona and graduated with a bachelor’s of science in watershed hydrology in 1977, first taking a two-year break to serve in the Peace Corps in Jamaica.
After graduation, he was hired as a hydrologist by the Arizona State Land Department, where he worked until 1989. Tersey then went to work as a hydrology consultant in Austin, Texas, and in the San Francisco bay area, eventually landing a job as an environmental assessor dealing with hazardous waste cleanup.
He returned to Tucson in 1998, becoming a self-employed internet technology consultant, and later working for a company until 2015.
“Dale was the only true Renaissance man I ever met,” said Tucson lawyer Joubert Davenport, a friend of Tersey’s for more than 40 years. He said Tersey was an amateur lapidarist, a blacksmith, and would fix, do, or find whatever was needed to complete a project.
While a student at the UA, Dale was a “science fiction geek,” said Davenport, remembering that he belonged to a student club that put on Desert Con, a science fiction convention in the 1970s. The club arranged for Arthur C. Clark, a British science fiction writer, to be a guest of honor; actor Vincent Price, who starred in horror and science fiction movies; and a production group that made the special effects for Star Wars, said Davenport.
“He probably was the best friend I ever had. This is a guy that could not do too much for you,” said Davenport, recalling a time when his vehicle broke down at night about 20 miles out of Tucson, and Tersey drove out and towed him into the city.
In 2004, Davenport became a Universal Life Church minister, receiving an online ministry certificate to officiate at the wedding of Tersey and his wife, Lorien. They celebrated in the back yard of their home.
Lorien lovingly recalled meeting Tersey contra dancing at a Tucson Friends of Traditional Music event, and attending Tersey’s monthly potluck dinner. The monthly potlucks can attract more than two-dozen people. He enjoyed cooking smoked pork ribs, green chile pork, and pit-style barbecue that was accompanied by side dishes brought by guests.
The couple also shared Lorien’s love for gardening. She is an urban farmer who raises chickens and produces herbs, vegetables and potted plants at Dreamflower Garden for sale at farmer’s markets.
Reflections that quickly came to Lorien was the time Tersey replaced the transmission in her old Chevy pickup so she could take her goods to market.
Then there was the time he fixed the irrigation pipes in the garden and replaced a pump in a 300-foot deep well used to water her plants.
“I will remember him as being a helpful person, accepting and welcoming everyone,” said Lorien of her late husband.
A celebration of life for Tersey, including a potluck, will be held once isolation and social distancing is lifted because of the coronavirus pandemic, his brother said.
In addition to his wife and two brothers, Tersey is survived by numerous relatives.
