April 1997 Marketer Articles

Sharing the Legacy...
A Tribute to the Life and Times of Tom Page

By Laurin McCracken, AIA, FMP
They broke the mold when Thomas Stokes Page came into this world. He was a special person in the history of the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) both in the way he influenced the development of our Society and the creation of our profession. Many of us who had the privilege to have known him, during what some would consider the twilight of his career, thought it important to share a part of his legacy with you.

Building From the Ground Up

One of SMPS’s earliest goals was to establishing marketing for the built environment as a true profession. The Society had strong leadership in the likes of gurus Weld Coxe and Gerre Jones, however, most of the membership were young Turks and those just learning marketing basics. What Page brought to SMPS was a head of white hair and a reputation for leadership. He had already become legendary in the industry through his association with John Carl Warnecke, Ezra Ehrenkrantz, and Harold Adams of RTKL. When Page stepped up to the plate, he brought a lifetime of experience to SMPS at a formidable time in the Society’s development.

In 1978, despite his illustrious career that spanned decades and included such notoriety-laden assignments as directing presidential public relations campaigns, Page rolled up his sleeves to help create the Washington, D.C., chapter. Through his many political contacts, he could pick up the phone and entice senior staff of some of the largest government agencies to speak at SMPS programs--including the General Services Administration and Corps of Engineers. Regularly packing the house with an audience, chapter fledglings soon learned a valuable marketing ploy--get a potential client to speak and you are guaranteed a turnout.

The Golden Tuba Award

At Page’s memorial service, Phil Tobey, a former SMPS Board Member, shared the story of how Page and a few other partners-in-crime contrived the DC chapter’s Golden Tuba Award. Page picked up a beat-up, old tuba at a Baltimore pawn shop--a fitting symbol for an award to a marketer. “A successful marketer,” Page speculated, “would be the individual carrying a tuba on the day it rained pennies from heaven.” Upon purchasing the tuba and discovering that it was missing a mouthpiece, Page reassured everyone with this observation--”whoever won the Golden Tuba was certainly capable of being their own mouthpiece.” Phil suggested that the next time we have the good fortune to be carrying a tuba and it rains pennies from heaven, it will be Tom Page who is tossing the pennies.

As SMPS continued to grow, so did Page’s participation. In 1983, Page was elected national vice president/president-elect. His platform was straight-forward and one that we will strive for today--expand the Society’s recognition and acceptance by other national associations, and the media, by presenting SMPS as the premier source of information for marketing professional services in the built environment. Through his close contacts at such established organizations as the AIA, ACEC, and PSMA, Page was able to promote increased cooperation, joint programming, and a greater appreciation of the growing role of marketing professional services.

One Part Fox: Two Parts Pussycat

Shortly after Page’s election as SMPS President, Gerre Jones had the opportunity to interview him. Jones was intrigued by the diversity of backgrounds among marketers comprising the Society, but no one had a more complex personae than Page--a perfect curriculum vitae for the bob at hand:

Thus, one might observe that Tom Page’s marketing side is a multiple of the preciseness and logic of a lawyer, the inquisitiveness and communication skills of a journalist, and the eye for detail and devotion to research of an intelligence officer. His deep, stentorian rumble is a voice familiar to many in the design and marketing world, as are his sense of humor and impatience with banalities and the inept. And he has a deep and abiding interest in the future of SMPS.

Room With a View

As SMPS national president, Page’s first order of business was to pause at that point in the rapid growth of the Society and take stock--he called it “looking out the window.” Upon realizing that he was about to take the reigns of a million-dollar-a-year organization (which was still being run like a fledgling, start-up operation), Page began to persuade the Board to treat SMPS as a business. That set in motion a series of activities that took several future administrations to complete, including,

Poised for success in the fact of future growth, Page’s legacy continues--all from a man that sat and looked out the window. Bruce Lea, a Board member on Page’s watch and former national SMPS president, remembers the Page era this way:

As I was waiting for the election results the year I was a candidate, I listened to Tom’s incoming-president’s address. He told the gathering that he felt the appropriate task of the Society’s volunteer leadership (the Board) was to ‘look out the window’ rather than ‘rearrange the desks.’ Our first Board meeting consisted of an agenda jam-packed with issues of concern to this or that chapter or committee--in truth, most dealt with rearranging the desks.

But Tom had other plans. The first two items had to do with broad topics that could loosely be described as discussion of what was (is) the added value of being a national organization, and how we could enhance that value for the benefit of our members. This took the better part of the day. Much to the consternation of those Board members whose personalities tended toward the detail “TypeA” orientation, a huge number of items had to be carried over to the next day. “How would we get it all done,” was the often-whispered question.

Amazingly, on the following day, we flew through these issues. Topics that deserved only a few minutes, received just that. How did this miracle take place? First, was the amount of time Tom shrewdly left to cover the more mundane housekeeping items. More importantly, on the previous day, we had established a context, perspective, and vision that guided resolution of detail. The answers to many, albeit not all, questions came easily. It was the positive energy that was created that fueled the second half of the meeting.

Actually, Tom had very little to say during those first-day discussions. He let the talent on the Board run. Some, at times, wondered if Tom knew what he was doing--I suspect he knew exactly what he was doing. He was leading and managing the unleadable and unmanageable--a bunch of marketers. The truth is there are those who encountered Tom who thought him more than a tad witty, even a fool. Wrong! Tom was only a sly fox in a fool’s clothing, and it was a fool who couldn’t recognize him.

Fellow Board members had this to share about Page:

Carla Thompson: “He taught me that we can be good at business, marketing, and selling, yet still be decent, moral, upstanding, and honorable. He was a mentor to so many people.”

Jack Alston: “Tom Page had a unique ability to make people feel important. One incident I’ll always remember about him occurred at one of the early SMPS conventions. I had given a summary of a roundtable discussion to an audience of perhaps 150 people. During a break, while in the “necessary” room, I overheard him talking to Greg Fern. Tom said that he had been impressed by my presentation and that ‘we ought to keep our eyes on that young man.’ I wondered for a long time if Tom was aware that I was one of several men in that room (facing the other way) or if the comment was meant to make me feel good. I think I know now.”

Lois Boemer: “My fondest remembrance of Tom Page is the first time I met him which was at the San Diego SMPS convention in the early 1980s. I had just been elected as the Northeast Regional Director and knew no one outside our region. My plane arrived late, and I virtually missed the Board meeting. At lunch the next day, I sat beside Tom on a raised platform where the Board looked out upon some 500 SMPS members. To make matters worse, they served Mexican food which I can not eat. When I mentioned this to Tom, he nudged me and said, ‘Order a salad.” So I did, and when it arrived in a huge tortilla shell, all eyes were on me. ‘Just wait,’ Tom grinned. A few minutes later, tortilla salads started appearing all over the room. He leaned over and said, ‘Welcome to the Board!’. Those of us who were the recipients of Tom’s wit and wisdom will never forget him.”

In a frame placed in the mantel of his office, which Page fondly referred to as his “bunker,” is a saying that we often heard him quote over the years--”Don’t argue with an alligator until after you have crossed the river.” We who had the privilege of knowing him were enriched by the experience. His greatest gift may be that he touched and enhanced so many lives. All of you in this industry, who did not have the pleasure of knowing him, benefit by the effort he made to prepare the way for us.

AN ILLUSTRIOUS LIFE

“Any life of 80 years is bound to cover a wealth of experience and touch its share of personalities, but each chapter of Tom Page’s life is a new episode of wonderment. With humor (often bizarre), warmth and his special brand of gravitas, Tom managed to leave his mark on so many people from so many different places that grasping it at once in a few short paragraphs seems a task Tom himself would have relished. You can hear him ask in that voice, ‘Give me a few hundred words on me. Make the men weep’ And so we shall try to piece together the facts":