Finding his way: UW-Platteville gave Gauthier a path to the future
By Todd Richmond
Tom Gauthier didn’t have a plan.
With graduation from Green Bay Preble High School looming in the spring of 1972, he assumed he’d be drafted and sent to Vietnam. When then-President Richard Nixon ended the draft that April, Gauthier had no idea what to do next.
Enter UW-Platteville. A guidance counselor pointed out that his aptitude in science and math could lead to a career in engineering.
“I looked him right in the face and said explain engineering to me,” Gauthier said. “And he did. He said, ‘there’s a school down in the southwestern part of the state, in Platteville …”
Four and a half years later, Gauthier graduated with a civil engineering degree and joined his father’s excavation company in Green Bay and eventually became the company’s president. He’s now a key Pioneer donor, and after 50 years still cherishes the memories of a bygone campus life that would seem almost unimaginable for most of today’s students.
Parents were not nearly as involved in those days, he said, leaving their kids to find their own way. His parents dropped him off in front of Morrow Hall as a freshman and didn’t return to campus until the day he graduated. His mother wrote him a letter every month (yes, a honest-to-goodness, handwritten letter, on paper) and when he wanted to come home to Green Bay, he hitchhiked and never thought twice about it.
But he still found his people, as they say, and he had plenty of fun. Maybe too much. He helped create an intramural football team called the Will-Nots. He adamantly refuses to divulge the nickname’s origin, calling it a secret, but he’s proud to say the team lost just one game in four years. And he learned some hard lessons about balancing partying with his studies.
“After the first year, most of us came to grips that if we’re going to get through this, we have to back off,” Gauthier said. “Because we were segregated from our families as much as we were, we were able to grow as young adults.”
As for classes themselves, the tech was primitive by today’s standards. There were no laptops. No 3D printers. No artificial intelligence. The tool of choice was a slide rule; Gauthier didn’t even buy his first calculator until he was a senior. It came with a trigonometry function and cost $350.
But it wasn’t about the tech. What mattered most were instructors like Dr. David Wong, who was always willing to talk with Gauthier about his problems, even if Gauthier happened to catch him in his office at 8 p.m.
“Wonderful guy. Just an amazing man,” Gauthier said. “I had so many great professors. I could go on and on. That’s why we enjoyed it so much. Most of these guys were young, and they just offered a tremendous education.”
After graduation, he joined Gauthier Construction, a contracting business his grandfather launched in 1930. One of the highest profile projects the company undertook was excavation of construction of the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewage District.
Tom and his brothers, Ron and James, took leadership roles in the company, now known as Gauthier and Sons Construction, Inc. after Ervan retired in 1985. Tom served as president, Ron as executive vice president and James as vice president.
“The day after I graduated, I came into the office, and I’ve been here ever since,” he said.
Ron and James are now retired, and he isn’t far behind. Now in his early 70s and with no grandchildren, he plans to close the business at the end of next year.
“It’s a tough business,” he said. “I’ll be pushing 75 when I retire. You only get so many steps on God’s green earth. It’s been a wonderful life and a wonderful career.”
But he still holds UW-Platteville close. On top of regular Will-Nots reunions, Gauthier established an endowed scholarship for civil engineering majors in 1999 and supports the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science with an annual donation.
“(UW-Platteville) was a wonderful place to be in my life at that time,” he said. “Once a Pioneer, always a Pioneer, and they can put that on my gravestone.”