Every community should have a Tom Lyon

By: 
Jim Leuenberger
Special to NEW Media

Tom Lyon, former long-time Shawano resident, died on March 8 from a rare form of leukemia at his home in Cambridge, Wisconsin. He was 80 — and he was my best friend.

Over the past few months, I was fortunate to talk to Tom several times on the phone. During one of those visits, he said, “Jim, I don’t think I’m going to win this one. So, do me a favor. Remember all the great times we had, okay?”

I said I would. We said good-bye and hung up our phones. I cried.

I first met Tom Lyon at a dairy show in Iowa when I was a young 4-H boy. He came up to me, reached out his hand to shake mine and said, “Hi, I’m Tom Lyon.” I knew from that very moment he was a special person. At the same time, I had no idea the impact he would have on my life years down the road.

At World Dairy Expo in Madison in 1974, Tom told me that a position in my field of communications and public relations would be opening up at Midwest Breeders Cooperative in Shawano sometime in 1975 and he asked me to take a look at it. Accepting his offer a couple months later was one of the best decisions I ever made.

I started my job at Midwest in February 1975. By then, Tom was the cooperative’s general manager, which meant I would be reporting to him, but we didn’t have the usual boss/employee relationship. He was my mentor. My confidant. My friend. His office door was always open and I could talk to him about just about anything.

Tom was not a micromanager. He said he did his best to hire the right person for each job, then got out of their way and let them do it. He treated everyone with respect, from the barn crew, to the WATS ladies, to the secretaries and the staff. It was like being in one big, happy family. Everyone enjoyed working there.

“We might not make much money,” Tom would say, “but we sure have a lot of fun.”

During the 25 years or so I worked with Tom, he and I traveled a lot together, to co-op and dairy meetings. During those trips we had some great conversations, often comparing ideas and discussing whether we thought they would work. No matter what, though, his first question was, “Is it good for our members … the farmers we serve?” He was always thinking of ways to improve the lives of dairy producers.

Tom rose to leadership and his work in cooperative circles was legendary. He turned Midwest Breeders into an international force. He was the brainchild behind the formation of Cooperative Resources International, the first agricultural holding cooperative.

Tom led by example. He provided great leadership to the Shawano community, to the state of Wisconsin and to the U.S. dairy industry. He always encouraged his staff to give back to their communities.

During my early years in Shawano, Tom’s family and mine became close. His son, Jeff, and daughter, Missy, babysat our kids. Our families would often get together on weekends at the home of Willard and Bernice Gums on the south shore of Shawano Lake to swim, water ski and just have fun. Those were great times. The best of times.

Every once in a while, we are fortunate to have a person like Tom Lyon come into our lives. His accomplishments were many, but what set him apart was that he was the kindest and most caring person I ever met. In every way, Tom Lyon was the real deal.

I have been so fortunate to have had Tom Lyon in my life and miss him so very much. I look forward to when we meet again and can talk about all the fun we had.

Rest in peace, my friend.