“Thank you, Tom, for everything”
Tom Osborne celebrates 55 years with Cook Medical
Tom Osborne, Cook’s first hired-on employee, and now the senior vice president of Intellectual Property Development and Engineering Development, is an iconic figure in the history of Cook Medical. He has played a number of pivotal roles in the development and growth of this company, working with groups like Production Engineering, Research & Development (R&D), Purchasing, Quality Control (QC), and Human Resources (HR) and taking on responsibilities such as assembling products, shipping, business development, drafting, litigation liaison, document production, and employee training.
On June 5, he was recognized for his 55 years with the company. Below is a short video of some of the special moments from his anniversary celebration, including comments from Pete Yonkman, president of Cook Medical and Cook Group, Steve Ferguson, chairman of the board of Cook Group Incorporated, Dexter Elkins, vice president of Marketing, and from Tom himself.
“Working at Cook all of these years has meant that I have been able to do some important, meaningful things in my life,” Tom said. “I like to think I have made a difference for society. It has been very rewarding. It has also meant that I have been able to stay in Bloomington, my home town, all my life, raise a family here, and contribute to the community. One of Bill Cook’s main goals for this company was to support and create a community for families to live and prosper.”
Looking forward
“The challenges are never ending,” Tom said. “We need to keep meeting the challenges head on, breaking them down into manageable projects, being innovative with solutions to problems, and to keep moving forward.”
“Bill Cook taught me that anyone’s problem is everybody’s problem,” he continued. “So, keep the big picture for the future in mind and contribute wherever you can. Bill liked to say, ‘Take care of the company, and it will take care of you.’ Looking back over the last 55 years, I have found this to be absolutely true!”
As Pete said in the video above, with all of the unique insights that Tom is able to share about Cook’s early days as a company, and the first-hand stories he can tell about being able to watch the company grow, change, and improve over time, Tom’s orientation presentations are often the highlight for many new hires starting at Cook. Below is a 30-minute video (watch it at your leisure) of Tom presenting on the history of Cook at a MED Institute event in 2013. This video is sometimes used for new hire orientations when Tom is unavailable to give the speech in person.
—
Written by Alexandria Stanfield, an Editorial Content generalist in Corporate Marketing and Communications at Park 48.
Tom, I now really know who was the first Cook employee…. After all of the times that I’ve heard you were the first and Miles K. was the first now I can believe you, because Miles can’t dispute your word. Congratulations on 55years.Sorry I’m so late sending my message.
P.S Ruby Pardue says CONGRATULATIONS too.
Heartiest Congratulations Tom – you will be missed by all of us!
Congratulations Tom! Thank you for all you have done and continue to do. Enjoyed listening to your interview! Very cool.
congratulation tom.
Congratulations Tom and thank you for giving me the opportunities to have the career path that I was able to have with Cook Inc.
Congratulations Tom on 55 years of service, what an accomplishment. You are an amazing person with a wealth of knowledge of this company.
Thank you for continuing to share your story, especially to the new hires that come in; I think it is very important that they get the background of the company that you have to offer. Thank you for taking the chance on me and all that you taught me during the years we worked directly together, I will forever cherish our time together.
Tom, all the best and congratulations! Wonderful Story!
Thank you Tom for your contribution. It is very important to hear and know it as it makes me proud of people working at Cook, where I do belong to.Thank you.
All;
Thanks for the nice comments.
Kim;
Some of the things you told me about the Nester helped us get expanded Patent protection for that device. Thank you for the input!
Lisa;
One of my favorite things was coming up with tools and fixtures to aid the hand crafting we did. I wish I had been able to do more of that. Unfortunately, as you know, we all had lots of things to do and not a lot of time to get them all done.
Congratulations Tom and thanks for sharing your story, it’s an honor to work for Cook
Congrats Tom! I started at Cook in 2004 and first met you at the ISET meeting in Miami. You came up to the booth and you didn’t have a name tag on. I started pitching you on all our Embo coils… basically in-serviced you on the Nester coil. You were a great sport and leaned on the booth and listened to my entire talk. After you walked away one of the senior reps at the booth couldn’t stop laughing and told me who you were. Your accomplishments are too many to list. Thanks for all that you’ve done in your 55 years here.
Kim DelConte
Congrats Tom!! It has been many years ago – but working with you in the R&D phase on the Amplatz Occluder (ASO) , and Birds Nest Filter (BNF) was a very cool learning experience! I remember struggling with a part of the ASO process – and saying if we just had a particular tool – this would be much easier….in about 10 minutes – you came up with something!
Lisa