Tom Westman

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Survivor contestant
Tom Westman
Date of birth January 4, 1964 (1964-01-04) (age 44)
Resides Sayville, New York
Season(s) Palau
Finish Winner
Tribe(s) Koror

Tom Westman (born January 4, 1964) is the $1,000,000 winner of the reality show Survivor: Palau. Westman is a husband, father of three, and former firefighter. Westman has a deaf daughter. He announced his retirement from the department effective August 8, 2005. He plans to begin a career as a motivational speaker.

[edit] Survivor: Palau

Starting the game of Survivor, Westman was not immediately targeted. When the game began with all 20 castaways on the same island, it was revealed later in the show that Westman was in an early alliance with Ian Rosenberger, Katie Gallagher and Stephenie LaGrossa. However, when it came time to pick tribes, LaGrossa ended up on Ulong, whereas Westman, Rosenberger, and Gallagher all ended up on Koror. The alliance between Westman, Rosenberger, and Gallagher stayed strong on Koror, despite the loss of LaGrossa.

Originally planning to hide behind the younger males of his tribe, Westman soon became known for leadership skills. Koror team-members secured early immunity wins in Episodes 1-4. Westman, Rosenberger, and Gallagher joined together with Gregg Carey and Jennifer Lyon to control the numbers on Koror. In Episode 5, both tribes faced tribal council regardless of the challenge outcome, and Tom joined the rest of his tribe to vote out tribal annoyance Willard Smith.

In Episode 7, Westman caught a shark for his tribe. Ulong continued to suffer until only LaGrossa remained. She joined Koror in Episode 9 in an unofficial merge. Together with LaGrossa, Westman's alliance controlled the game and voted out Coby Archa.

At the Final 8, Westman's allies Carey and Lyon decided to vote out LaGrossa, despite Westman's campaigning for her. But Janu Tornell unexpectedly quit the game at tribal council after LaGrossa broke down once. At the Final 7, LaGrossa tried to organize an alliance of women against Westman, but Caryn Groedel would not commit and informed Westman of the plan. Together with Rosenberger, Gallagher, Carey and Lyon, he voted out LaGrossa.

At the Final 6, Westman was comfortable with his immunity wins and his alliance. However, he received a shock when Rosenberger informed him that Carey and Lyon had swayed Gallagher to their side to turn on Westman at the Final 5. When Carey, Lyon and Gallagher were enjoying a reward, Westman, Rosenberger, and Caryn conspired to get rid of Carey instead. They even contemplating drawing rocks in random elimination. But it never came to that stage as Rosenberger informed Gallagher of the plan minutes before tribal council and she had no choice but to comply or risk elimination by random rock drawing, and Carey was voted out.

At the Final 5, the alliance of Westman, Rosenberger and Gallagher was on shaky ground due to the betrayal of Westman and Rosenberger instigating Carey's departure. Gallagher and Lyon agreed to team up with Caryn to control the game. This was further pushed when Rosenberger took Westman on a reward, despite promising to take Gallagher. This angered Gallagher and led to an argument with Rosenberger after he returned. But after the two reconciled, they agreed to get rid of Caryn instead, abandoning the all-female alliance. At the Final 4, Rosenberger contemplated turning on Westman and siding with Gallagher and Lyon to vote off Wstman. But when Westman enjoyed another immunity win, Rosenberger agreed that Lyon would be the next to go. However, when Westman found out about Rosenberger's plan, he sided with Lyon and voted for Rosenberger. But Gallagher stayed true to Rosenberger, resulting in a 2-2 tie. Both Rosenberger and Lyon participated in a fire-building tie-breaker competition. Rosenberger won, and Lyon was voted out.

At the Final 3, heavy arguments took place, especially between Rosenberger and Westman. Rosenberger felt as if he had betrayed his friends, and protested that he did not come to play the role of the villain. In the endurance immunity challenge, after close to 12 hours, Rosenberger agreed to step down and be voted off in a sign of repentance for betraying Westman and Gallagher. Westman accepted and Rosenberger was voted out. This immunity win was Tom's fifth out of only seven individual immunity challenges, a feat matched only by Colby Donaldson, Terry Deitz and newly beaten by Ozzy Lusth who won five out of only six individual immunity challenges.

In the end, Westman defeated Gallagher in a 6-1 vote to become the Sole Survivor. He managed to gain the votes of Tornell, LaGrossa, Carey, Groedel, Lyon and Rosenberger.

[edit] Trivia

Westman attended academic and athletic powerhouse Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, NY, graduating in 1982. There, he was a peer group counselor and member of the track team. In 1982, he held the school record in the pole vault, 14' 6", which held for 20 years.

In June 2005 Westman made TV Guide's "sexiest men" list. On June 10, 2005 the town of Sayville, New York threw a parade for Tom Westman. The County Executive declared June 10 as Tom Westman Day.

On August 10, 2005 he appeared as himself on CBS daytime soap The Bold and the Beautiful, discussing pool safety.

In November 2005 Westman guest-hosted an episode of Survivor's Internet talk show, Survivor Live.

He is one of only three fathers (at the time of the start of the game) to win "Survivor", the others being Richard Hatch (son) and Brian Heidik (son).

He is currently the last married person (at the time of the start of the game) to win "Survivor", and only the fourth overall besides Tina Wesson, Brian Heidik, and Sandra Diaz-Twine.

As of 2007, Westman holds the record as the oldest Survivor contestant to win the game. He was 41 years old at the time of taping.

He lives in Sayville with his wife Bernadette, and children Megan, Declan, and Connor.

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