COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Tom McNutt, NBC4’s former longtime gardening expert has died at the age of 84, according to family members.

Tom McNutt was born in Hardin County and grew up working on the family farm. He graduated from Dunkirk High School in 1951 and went on to The Ohio State University. He graduated with an agriculture degree in 1955 and a masters in agricultural education in 1962.

He started teaching in Belle Center and then in Dublin, but it didn’t stop there. He later became an instructor at Ohio State. He retired from teaching in 1988.

He became a part of the NBC4 family in 1989, and for nearly 25 years, Tom was a huge part of the weekend morning team, giving gardening advice to all of Central Ohio.

“I just want to be remembered as a person who tried to help anyone that needed help and is trying to smile and adjust and get along with everyone,” McNutt said in a 2014 interview. “My legacy I think would be that I be considered a people person.”

Aside from the work that he loved, his one true passion was always his family, beginning with the one and only love of his life and wife of 60 years, Joan.