Tom Draper

Yesterday I wrote about Jackson Brown, a Milford High School teacher who was a big influence in my life.

Today I am thinking about someone else who impacted me.

His name is Tom Draper, and I first knew of him when he owned a couple of small radio stations in Milford, DE. The first was an AM in the 1960’s that used the call letters WTHD (Thomas H Draper). In 1973 he added an FM, which was assigned the call letters WAFL.

I knew of Tom, and probably had met him a time or two through friends, etc, but I got to know him better in 1980 when he bought WBOC AM/FM/TV in Salisbury, MD, where I was working. The FCC made him split off the radio stations, and when the dust settled I landed at the TV station doing news for him for three more years.

It was a huge win for Tom, and a huge win for our community. Tom was all about being local and he invested millions of dollars into the TV station. He ended up buying two other TV stations, one in Texas and one in Missouri.

I left broadcasting for a while in 1983, and Tom tried talking me out of it. He offered me a nice raise but I had made up my mind that I was done with TV so I left.

I would see Tom from time to time at events, but we didn’t really travel in the same circles.

In the early 2000’s, I rented a small house from Tom in Milton and moved my video production company there. I shared the space with my friend Michael, who was a business consultant and speaker.

Around that time I went through a personal life crisis, and a very dark year or two. I somehow kept the video business going, but I was not well. I was living at the office, and not yet gone to counseling (another story for another day).

It was during this time period that Tom stopped by one day. He told me he was donating a video system to his alma mater, Mount Herman School in Massachusetts. Cameras, lights, switcher, the whole deal. He said, “You know more about this stuff than me. Why don’t you ride up there with me and help me decide where to position the cameras and everything?”

He said we’d be gone a few days and he’d cover the expenses if I would help him out.

I was more than happy to get out of Dodge so I agreed, and a few weeks later I met him at his farm outside Milton, and Tom, his two dogs, and I started the trek north.

It’s a 6 or 7 hour drive, so we drove directly to the hotel, got some dinner, and the next morning we went to Mount Herman School to discuss the video installation.

I had never been there, and Tom was more than happy to show me around. He’s somewhat of a legend there, as are his daughter and son-in-law (Mariah and Sam Calgione, founders of Dogfish Head).

I told Tom how many cameras I would get, what lenses they’d need, where I’d mount the cameras, etc if it were me, and the next day we drove home.

All told we probably spent about 14 hours in the car, talking about everything. Life, death, hunting, politics, broadcasting, marriage, divorce, and many other things. He knew a little about every one of those topics, and he shared his advice freely. To paraphrase a mutual friend, “Tom wasn’t always right but he was seldom in doubt.”

I enjoyed spending time with him, and the time away helped clear my head a little. Later I got into counseling and eventually got my life back on track.

On September 8, 2017 Tom was riding his bike not too far from his farm, something he loved doing nearly every day, when he was hit by a vehicle. He didn’t survive.

His death was a blow to everyone who knew him, and to our community.

I immediately thought about our time at WBOC TV, about the day I told him I was quitting and how he asked me to stay, and I thought about our time riding up to Mount Herman School.

That was when it finally dawned on me.

Tom Draper owned three TV stations and employed some of the best engineers and technicians in the country.

If he wanted advice on how many cameras to buy and where to put them at a school, he could have dispatched a couple of them to Massachusetts and they would have done drawings and spreadsheets and frankly, a much better job of giving advice on this topic than me.

In my depression, I hadn’t seen what was going on.

Tom cared about me and he set up this road trip to be my friend and to speak into my life.

His own life had been radically altered a few years before when he decided to follow Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and he was putting feet to his prayers.

He wasn’t the warm and fuzzy guy, so I didn’t even realize what was happening until I was healthy and looked back at the trip and our conversations on the road.

None of us can do this journey alone. I am grateful for the many people along the way who have helped me find the road, and who are there to pick me up when I fall down.

Tom Draper was one of them.

“Two are better than one… If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”

Ecclesiastes 4:9–10