Thomas William Heckman, Sr.
Thomas William Heckman, Sr. was born on October 25, 1941, to Florence and Harold Heckman in Painesville, Ohio. Six years later, Tom became a big brother to Jeffrey (Mélisande) Heckman, Sr.
Tom loved football and was a lifelong Browns fan, even if that meant yearly disappointments. He played football and wrestled at Harvey High School, graduating in 1959. He attended Ohio University, where he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. It was there that he met the love of his life Phoebe Heckman (née Gulledge). Forever the prankster, Tom proposed by mailing an enormous box to Phoebe that he filled with progressively smaller boxes, each rigged with booby traps and decoys requiring her to unwrap an insane number of layers. At the very center was a small scrap of paper that read, “look in Tom’s pocket” where she found the ring box. Tom and Phoebe married on February 1, 1964, and soon after started a family.
Tom and Phoebe raised three children, Kimberly Heckman, Thomas (Tina) Heckman, Jr., and Jason (Teri) Heckman, in Madison, Ohio. Tom gave everything to his family, which he lovingly called “Heck-Fare.” His last penny was your last penny – a philosophy he practiced without exception. And when his daughter Kim faced severe mental illness, without a second thought, Tom and Phoebe stepped up and raised her two children, Timothy (Kelley) Heckman and April (Bruce) Bensimone, as their own.
He firmly believed that happiness was a choice. “You’re as happy as you want to be,” he would say – and he lived accordingly. And because of this, he reveled in his frugality. Tom was convinced that anything could be fixed with duct tape, silicone, and WD-40. He patched the worn holes in the soles of his beloved moccasins with duct tape, which extended their life and created a distinctive loud “chch, chch, chch” sound that announced his arrival to local Madison businesses, which he often paired with a monogrammed purple bathrobe. He lived entirely by his own tune and never once worried who was watching.
When it came to fashion, Tom prized comfort over convention. He championed the flannel-on-flannel-on-flannel aesthetic and would often be found wearing it in his favorite La-Z-Boy recliner.
A proud entrepreneur, Tom owned many small businesses over the decades. His most successful ventures were Laboratory Contractors, Inc. and Universal Scientific, Inc., where he manufactured and distributed laboratory glassware washers for the last 40 years. He often took his sons, Tom and Jay, and grandson Tim to job sites, where he enjoyed teaching them the tricks of his trade. And every check he received was celebrated with a victory dance and song, “nah-nah-nah, nah-naah, nah-nah nah-naah.”
Tom was an encyclopedia of aphorisms and enjoyed writing the “quote of the day” on Tim and April’s brown paper bag lunches that he packed every day for school. Each morning as his children and grandchild left for school, he would say, “get smarter, eat a book, be nice to your teacher, get good grades, and learn something!” And every Friday, Tom hosted a Taco Bell Question Night where he quizzed Tim and April on historical trivia and somehow always left with a year’s supply of napkins.
On January 28, 2026, Tom passed away peacefully at home, with his wife of nearly 62 years by his side, at the age of 84. He is deeply missed by his family, which includes ten grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren – and countless others who were lucky enough to be pulled into his orbit. A celebration of life will be held in the spring; the date and details will be announced later.