Thomas Bauman, Hickok VP Of Marketing & Sales
By Gary Molinaro | March 19th, 2010 | Category: Obituaries | No Comments »Thomas Bauman, vice president of marketing and sales for Cleveland-based Hickok Inc., died March 1 after a three-year battle with lung cancer. Bauman, 66, had been with Hickok for more than a decade and was instrumental in boosting the nearly-century-old company’s presence in the automotive aftermarket.
A native of Cleveland, Bauman built his marketing reputation with food industry giants Nestle and Morton Salt, then served as CEO of foodservice equipment supplier C&K Manufacturing before joining Hickok to work with his older brother, Hickok President and CEO Bob Bauman. “Hickok, up until just prior to his coming on board, was very heavily selling to OEMs,” recalled Bob Bauman, who has been with the company for 45 years. “We were trying to broaden the base of our business, and we had a number of products we felt were applicable into the automotive aftermarket environment.”
Bob Bauman said his brother’s product marketing experience proved invaluable, even in an arena that was new to him. “He had to learn new players and all that, but the way the automotive aftermarket distribution systems work is identical to the way the food industry distribution systems work,” he said. Led by his efforts, Hickok — long known for its instrumentation in the aviation and locomotive industries — established itself as a “significant player” in the aftermarket, Bob Bauman noted, with automotive-related sales accounting for more than half of the company’s business.
