Born July 14 1959 in Milwaukee, Tom Gardner was the only boy in a home where he had 6 sisters. Tom is close to and very proud of his dad, and has been all Tom’s life. His strong work ethic and determination was inherited from his father.

Tom’s artistic side, as well as his appreciation of the beauty of things around him, he attributes to his mom. She was an artist, and taught art. 

His dad is a lawyer, and also teaches. He has written several law books, and is considered the “father of undergraduate law studies for criminal justice”. Tom’s dad, though up in age, still comes down to Gulf Shores every winter as a snowbird, and owns a condo just down the street from Tom. He still works at his profession and still walks at least 90 minutes a day.

In high school Tom was involved in theater and music. Graduating from High School with honors he attended Marquette University and received a Bachelor of Arts in the college of Speech and Interpersonal Communications, and from the College of Business he earned an additional business degree. 

While in college, he summered through a program with the Marines and attended Officer Candidate School. Unfortunately, it was determined he was a diabetic and Tom was not able to complete the program.

While attending college, he worked with the Iroquois Boat Line as a first mate and entertainment manager. He also had a job as assistant to the director of the Institute for Latin American Concern. To supplement his college money he sometimes worked as a meat packer, and was even the Beverage Manager at Major Golsby’s Sport Bar in Milwaukee. 

He was determined to be as self-sufficient as possible, and not a burden to his family.  As a child Tom wanted to be an airplane pilot (what child didn’t), but when he got in college his aspirations changed.  He now dreamed of being a part of a huge corporation, being a “suit”, and making a lot of money. For a while he thought of maybe being a lawyer. He said he didn’t want to “sell toilet paper.”

Graduating Marquette third in his class, he went to work for the largest corporation in Wisconsin, which was the Fort Howard Paper Corporation out of Green Bay. He worked his way up to Private Label Manager and then Southeast Region Manager.  He says he started out in charge of toilet paper (the one thing he DIDN’T want to do) selling all over the state of Wisconsin. 

Promotions came fast, and Tom became responsible for product management, marketing, broker management, and sales for a broad line of private label and branded paper products sold to the consumer grocery industry. Now traveling around the entire country on the company’s Lear jet, he got a taste of the good life.

He was young, aggressive and a hard worker, and brought in about $30 million in business a year. Unfortunately he was getting a salary and his portion was relatively small. Six years later, though he loved the job, he decided money was more important.

He accepted a job with RED WING, a private label company. Besides higher pay, the opportunities to travel outside the state with a territory now that covered all of the Southeast including Puerto Rico was attractive.  Life was good.

But in 1992 after two years with Red Wing, he received an offer from Mitsui Foods, a Japanese company that was operating out of Hackensack NJ, to work for them as a General Sales Manager. Tom was in broker management and sales for this diverse importer of canned seafood products to the grocery industry and he was moved to Atlanta. 

His first home in Atlanta was on the upscale Habersham Way with neighbors such as Burt Lance, and Fran Tarkenton. In Atlanta he met a lady that he was to marry. She was originally from Clio, Alabama, was a furniture manufacturing rep and into Real Estate. Leaving Mitsui, due to the company closing that office and their consolidation of operations, Tom and his wife rented their home to an Olympics executive and moved to Orange Beach. That’s where he and she had often come with their families while growing up.

She opened a furniture store on Canal Road and Tom became involved in the furniture business. He was tired of corporate work and after a while, the road called again. Tom became a rep for several companies. 

Reflecting back, he said that working in the corporate world “can be a slippery slope.”  While at one time working for a corporation was a feeling of family, eventually it became just a job that you worked till a better one came along.

After a short two-year marriage, Tom got divorced. Prior to that happening, he had become close friends with the owner of a company known as Picture Source. Tom became their rep, and got to make business trips to places like Shanghai, and Tokyo.  

He also took on a rep line called American Leather that had huge commissions, but their demands soon ended that relationship. He took a territory worth about $80,000 to over $2 million in sales, but ended up being replaced by a salaried worker.

Tom was still in pursuit of that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in 2007 when he went to work as a representative for Milo’s Tea Company as a Territory Manager.

In 2008 he took a job as the National Sales Manager with Emissary. Responsibilities included national and international sales of home accents, ceramics, and lighting to clients in the furniture, gift, garden, hospitality, commercial, and residential design industries via direct sales, independent sales reps, and website. 

He successfully developed and implemented strategies to maintain sales through the economic downturn. He enjoyed the trade shows in Vegas, Miami, San Francisco, New York, and High Point -- for it was there that so many of his contacts were made. 

After years and years of successful sales, and miles and miles of traveling he quit (Tom’s a “Flying Colonel” and million miler with Delta, a status which he acquired when traveling from Shanghai, Tokyo, Dublin, Paris, Manila, or just cross country in the USA).

He went to work for a company called Shermag. They went bankrupt. Tom decided he needed a break. He’d had enough traveling, living out of a suitcase, sleeping in strange beds and eating out all the time. He did, however, love selling, and he loved interacting with people. He felt he was doing a service by providing people with information that allowed them to make an intelligent decision on a particular product. At that, he was very successful. 

Tom returned to Orange Beach and eventually bought a town home in Gulf Shores. He loves this area, loves the community and he has that “Small Town Big Beach attitude”.  Tom hung out and enjoyed life but it wasn’t enough. 

He heard that Radio Shack was looking for someone, so he applied.  He was immediately hired and he loves the job. He admires Doug Byrd who owns the three Radio Shacks in our area. He says Doug takes seriously the fact that he provides jobs for his employees. He takes care of those that work for him providing health care, decent wages and giving responsibility to those that he hires and trusts.

Tom still enjoys working with, and helping, people. I stood back in the store and just listened to him interact with his customers. He establishes an immediate trust with those who come in contact with him. People like Tom, and I found him to be a tremendous asset to the Radio Shack store. If you go in to buy something, you will go back.

I asked Tom what he hoped his legacy would be. He said he wanted people to think of him as honest, kind, fair, and a person that would never intentionally hurt anyone.   

Tom is active at the local church and is very community minded. We ON THE ISLAND are fortunate to have Tom here with us, and I’m happy to be able to call him a friend.