Tom Holschuh, or “BHTH” to his friends and loved ones, was the original Blackthumb. Tom faced hardship in his career. Having grown a successful bussing company serving northeast Wisconsin, he tragically had it taken away from him after a fallout with his partners. After his exodus, he was forced to move his family to Chicago for work at the O’Hare airport to make ends meet.

Despite the setback Tom persevered and managed to raise five wonderful children who went on to have many grandchildren. Tom and his wife Joyce eventually made it back to northeast Wisconsin in their retirement, where he put his zest for all things mechanical to good use. Tom could most days be found volunteering at the local charitable thrift store fixing anything with gears – old sewing machines being a specialty of his.

BHTH was put on earth to, amongst other things, fix machines. Even when he couldn’t be found at the thrift store, he spent countless hours in his basement workshop or garage puttering around with machines that needed fixing. He’d often end his days with layers of black grease on his hands from the hours working on vehicles, lawn mowers, and even model airplanes.

Although his fix-it skills were peerless it was the intensity, resourcefulness, and open-mindedness in addressing problems that made Tom singular. These characteristics were observed by his wayward grandson – a recent college-graduate whom he charitably took in and that unfortunately failed to inherit Tom’s mechanical inclinations. Upon arrival, this grandson found Tom – in his late seventies at the time – on youtube trying to figure out how to fix something particularly vexing in one of their vehicles.

To Tom’s credit he didn’t discount that grandson despite his obvious shortcomings, even managing to teach him how to change oil and put on a spare tire amongst other skills he’d fail to consistently exercise. While they may not have shared the same competencies, what Tom did pass on to his grandson were those intangibles, and a relentless tenacity for solving challenging problems. Eventually the grandson came to find that while he couldn’t interpret the lights on his vehicle dash, he had a knack for a different type of diagnostic work - corporate diagnostics.

Speaking as that grandson today, I’d like to think that at Blackthumb we attack our clients’ challenges with the same intensity, curiosity, and care emblematic of BHTH when he faced a particularly stubborn machine that needed fixing. If you trust us with your business’ biggest challenges, you can trust that you’ll find us as you could often find Grandpa Tom - under the hood, coffee nearby, hands full of grease.