Greenville civic leader, attorney and conservationist Tommy Wyche has died.
Wyche, who joined the law firm founded by his father in 1949, built a reputation as a brilliant lawyer and a civic-minded leader who worked strategically and diligently on a project until it came to fruition.
Wyche, who was as humble as he was tenacious, played a crucial role in bringing the Hyatt Regency to Main Street when downtown Greenville was decayed and its streets empty.
Wyche was a conservationist who is credited for the preservation of the Blue Ridge escarpment from the Jocassee Gorges to the Poinsett Reservoir. Wyche started the Naturaland Trust, one of the region’s largest land trusts, in the 1970s with the idea of protecting the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northwest corner of South Carolina.
By piecing together conservation easements and property acquisitions, the Naturaland Trust has created a Mountain Bridge with public land from the Greenville Reservoir to the Table Rock Reservoir. Included in the Mountain Bridge are Caesar’s Head and Jones Gap.
He spearheaded efforts to get the Chattooga River designated as a wild and scenic river.
He was a nature photographer, author, state tennis champion and an arts advocate.
