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November 1, 2009

Tom Wyncott is the Reader of the Week

By Rod Rowe

BRISTOL — Tom Wyncott, Bristol, was born and raised in Chicago. Soon after he was discharged from the Marine Corps, he moved to Elkhart in 1971, got married and raised a family.

Wyncott is president of Standard Label Co., a firm he started in 1982 and continues to operate. The firm, now in a building along Wyland Drive, east of Elkhart, employs 16 people.

Wyncott served two tours of duty in Vietnam in the Marine Corps, working as a radio operator, before he was discharged in August 1968. That January he began working at a label-making firm in Chicago for $2 an hour. In six months he was promoted to foreman and stayed with the firm two years before trying to start his own company. “I loved it,” he said of the printing work.

He said there was too much competition in Chicago, so his next move was to Elkhart, where he worked as an assistant manager at a restaurant for more than 10 years.

It was at the Nappanee Street Shakee’s Pizza that he met a nurse named Kristine Hansing, as they both worked late shifts and would gather at the pizza place at the end of their work.

“A friend introduced us,” Wyncott said, and he and Kristine have been married for 35 years.

They raised a daughter, Teresa, who is a lawyer but now a stay-at-home mom with three children in Rensselaer, and son, David, who is completing his training to be a medical doctor at George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Teresa attended St. Mary’s College and David went to Notre Dame.

After working at the restaurant for 10 years, Wyncott said, he was ready to launch into the printing business.

“I had $200 and I said I’m going to start a business,” he recalled.

In 1982 he started Standard Label. He found local customers, picked up material, and on weekends drove to his father’s home in Chicago, where he had his printing press.

“I’d go to church with them on Sunday and then come back home,” he said. “I would deliver the job on Monday.”

Wyncott followed that routine for six months before renting a building along Baldwin Street and bringing his machine to Elkhart. He expanded gradually, adding a receptionist after six months, then buying a building along Baldwin. In 1991 he built his new building along Wyland Drive. The business has grown to 16 employees.

Even in this economic climate, he said, he has not eliminated jobs.

“I really don’t want to eliminate jobs,” Wyncott said. “So sometimes I lower prices when need be.”

“We’re keeping busy,” he said. “We keep going.”

His main clients are located across northern Indiana, with some in Michigan and some as far away as Iowa, Colorado and the Carolinas.

Standard Label Co. received an Elkhart Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year award in 1998.

Tom and Kristine now live near Bristol, where he takes care of the outdoor maintenance. He enjoys the solitude while riding the mower, explaining that it is a good time to think.

The couple attend St. Thomas Catholic Church in Elkhart, where Tom has been involved in fundraising. When his son was younger, he helped as a Cub Scout den leader.

Travel for the couple usually involves seeing the grandchildren. The couple did go to Sweden the summer before last to see some of Kristine’s relatives.

In recent years Tom has attended Marine Corps reunions and he plans to get to the next reunion.

In the past year or so the Wyncotts rejoined the Goshen Veterans of Foreign Wars, where they enjoy visiting at the non-smoking dining area.

“We like that VFW now, with the non-smoking area,” Tom explained.

In early November, Tom said, he plans to attend the local observance of the Marine Corps birthday, as 30 or 40 people will gather at Bennigans in the Elkhart Ramada Inn.

There will be a banquet and cake, the singing of the Marine Corps hymn and recognition of the youngest and oldest Marines.

“It’s a fun thing,” Tom said.

He predicted that Sophie Stazinski, a World War II nurse, will again be recognized as the oldest Marine at the Elkhart event.

“She will be in her dress blues,” he said.

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