At the Bloch School’s 2005 Commencement, Tom Holcom (B.B.A. ’72) played Cheshire cat to an audience of graduating seniors—most, like the wandering girl in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, wanting to know which way they ought to go from here. His challenge: decide where you want to get to.

Holcom then distributed business cards and asked the graduates to flip them over and write their epitaph. It wasn’t an exercise in morbidity, it was an exercise in values.

This kind of long-term vision statement, deciding where it is you want to go, says Holcom, is what drives businesses, nonprofits and the people behind them to success.

He should know.

As the president of Pioneer Financial Services, Holcom has led his team of 300 associates to enhance the quality of life and financial independence of military members and their families. Everyday, they make a difference in the lives of those who serve our country, and their work has earned accolades for their team and for Holcom. In 2006, Pioneer earned the American Business “Stevie” Award for Best Corporate Responsibility Program and was recognized for the second time in three years as the eighteenth Best Medium-Sized Company to Work for in America by the Great Places to Work Institute

Always crediting the focus and passion of Pioneer’s associates, Holcom earned the Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Social Responsibility in the Central Midwest region from Ernst & Young and the Freedom Team Salute for supporting Pioneer associates who serve in the National Guard and Reserve, both in 2006.

Outside of the office, Holcom works with several nonprofit organizations, including Angel Flight, which provides access to charitable air transportation; Big Brothers and Big Sisters; Truman Medical Center Foundation; Command and General Staff College Foundation; and Athena PowerLink, which helps women-owned companies grow.

All of his work—with Pioneer, with nonprofits, even when he coached his three sons through seventeen years of soccer—follows his own personal vision, written as an epitaph on the back of a business card when he graduated from the Bloch School in 1972. It reads, “He has no regrets. He made a difference.”

 Thomas H. Holcom “Make a Difference” Scholarship

Make a difference—the mantra has followed Holcom throughout his professional and civic contributions, and has even seeped into the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks of his colleagues. In 2005, the executives from Pioneer Services elected to fund a scholarship at the Bloch School in Holcom’s name.

“They wanted a legacy for the concepts that we embrace so well here at Pioneer, namely that we want to make a difference,” says Holcom. “They, in turn, wanted to make a difference for business students at the Bloch School.” Holcom was so moved he matched the gift.

The Thomas H. Holcom “Make a Difference” Scholarship is available to full-time undergraduate or graduate students in the Bloch School. Selection is based on academic achievement, community involvement, professional excellence and financial need.