Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
In its 40 years, the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center has had just two directors: Patrick Labadie, who retired to Alpena, Michigan, in 2000; and Thom Holden, who will retire from the post at the end of January.
“I always said I was really good as No. 2, and kind of average probably as No. 1,” Thom says.
Nonsense, says Pat. “He was perfect as a successor.”
Thom – a magnificently mustachioed Wisconsinite originally from Delavan, near the Illinois border – first took a job as a caretaker naturalist in Greenwich, Connecticut, after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s in journalism and recreation resources management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But for him and his wife, Cindy, “it wasn’t quite home, as much as we liked it. It was a ways away.”
During his studies, he’d spent the summer of 1973 at Isle Royale National Park as a student conservation assistant. The following two summers, he worked at Fort Wilkins Historic State Park in Copper Harbor, Michigan. The Lake Superior hook had been set.
So in April 1977, when a one-year appointment as a museum technician opened in Duluth at the visitor center, he didn’t hesitate to apply. “I’ve been here ever since.”
Thom’s built exhibits, worked with school and community groups, edited and written for the LSMMA newsletter The Nor’Easter and, since 2000, has headed the center. He’s even contributed to Lake Superior Magazine, starting with an article in 1979 for the premiere issue of Lake Superior Port Cities (the original name). Naturally, he wrote about an Isle Royale shipwreck, the steamer America. Thom also helped with revisions of Lake Superior Shipwrecks, the late Dr. Julius F. Wolff, Jr.’s seminal book.
Now, after 35 years, Thom, 66, will hang up his ranger uniform. He will stay in Superior, Wisconsin, and hopes retirement allows time to teach and assist with educational programs.
Park Ranger Denise Wolvin appreciates that Thom will stay involved. “He’s been very instrumental in helping me learn more about the history of the maritime industry in the Twin Ports and the Great Lakes as a whole. I wouldn’t know half as much as I do right now if it wasn’t for him. Luckily he is only a phone call away.”
“The public contact part of it, that’s the little carrot for me, that’s what I really enjoy doing,” says Thom. But, he adds, “I keep telling my wife, what I really want to do is be able to take a nap whenever I want to.”