Thomas "Tom" J. Sardy

T147  Tom Sardy

George Madsen [00:00:10] And I’ll just play like I’m announcer now. And I would start off by saying, uh, your name is Thomas J. Sardy, right? And, Tom, when did you come to Aspen?
Tom Sardy [00:00:24] March the 19th, 1938.
George Madsen [00:00:27] You were about how old then?
Tom Sardy [00:00:30] 26, I think.
George Madsen [00:00:32] 26? You’re not sure. But you look pretty young right now. Uh, were you just out of school?
Tom Sardy [00:00:39] Been out about two years.
George Madsen [00:00:41] Uh, what was that? School. Tom?
Tom Sardy [00:00:43] College of Mortuary Science in Saint Louis.
George Madsen [00:00:45] You were going to become an undertaker? .
Tom Sardy [00:00:48] Right.
George Madsen [00:00:48] Well, how did you happen to pick Aspen as a place to, uh, become an undertaker in?
Tom Sardy [00:00:55] Well, I just never cared working for the other fella too much. And this could be bought reasonable and in fact cheap. And I didn’t have anything but peanuts in those days. I found some guy that would take the minimum, who loaned me some money, so I took it while the going was good, you know?
George Madsen [00:01:16] Well, that worked out pretty well, hasn’t it, over the years?
Tom Sardy [00:01:19] Yeah. Very well.
George Madsen [00:01:21] Uh, at that time, when you came here as as the undertaker, you also had to become something else, didn’t you? In a business way. It wasn’t just undertaking alone that you found yourself.
Tom Sardy [00:01:33] No. This fellow that I bought out had a combination furniture store. Hardware store, mortuary, had a building with apartments upstairs. And believe me, it took them all to make a living, too.
George Madsen [00:01:46] Well, I would say then that you were you came when you came to Aspen. You were in big business, whether you liked it or not. More or less.
Tom Sardy [00:01:53] Yeah, it was a big business for no money in.
George Madsen [00:01:56] Aspen was pretty simple in those days.
Tom Sardy [00:01:58] Yeah, I should say.
George Madsen [00:02:00] It was simple,.
Tom Sardy [00:02:02] But it was nice to, you know.
George Madsen [00:02:05] Lots of fishing?
Tom Sardy [00:02:06] Yeah, there was one thing nice about it is when we wanted to go fishing, we’d just lock up for the day and go skiing. We’d lock up, but nobody seemed to mind. They’d wait till next day to buy their wares. You can’t do that today.
George Madsen [00:02:19] I remember when you said you were sitting on the sidewalk on the curb with, uh, Maggie Magnifico of next door, and there wasn’t a customer around. You just passed the time of day sitting in the sun.
Tom Sardy [00:02:32] So we’d sit in the sun by the hour on the curb and kind of be annoyed when the customer came along.
George Madsen [00:02:38] That was a nice, simple, easy way of living. That’s right. Uh, but then, uh, in about 1946, things got a little more complex didn’t they, Tom?
Tom Sardy [00:02:48] Yeah. That’s when Walter came to town. Paepcke, you know.
George Madsen [00:02:52] Uh, things changed.
Tom Sardy [00:02:54] Things started moving.
George Madsen [00:02:56] Uh, I would say then you not only had the your undertaking business and your hardware store. But what else did you acquire at that time?
Tom Sardy [00:03:05] Well, then then I, I tied up with Walter in a partnership and in a hardware store. We went on to build a lumberyard, too.
George Madsen [00:03:15] So you you got involved in a lumber yard? .
Tom Sardy [00:03:17] Thats right.
George Madsen [00:03:18] Uh, this was all because of the sudden building program as a result of Walter Paepcke’s development and the awakening of Aspen. Is that right?
Tom Sardy [00:03:28] That’s correct.
George Madsen [00:03:30] Uh, now, uh, another thing, as time went on, uh, or. Well, I would say back sometime before that you held another job. You were in connection with a undertaking business. I believe you were coroner. Is that right?
Tom Sardy [00:03:46] That’s right. I was county coroner for several years, and then, uh, ran there was a vacancy as a county commissioner. So I ran for that office and was elected.
George Madsen [00:04:00] How long have you been county commissioner?
Tom Sardy [00:04:02] This is my third term tonight, going on nine years now.
George Madsen [00:04:06] So in all you’ve you’re the undertaker, the hardware store operator, the operator of a lumberyard in conjunction with your partners. You have been coroner, and you are now county commissioner. That means you’re fairly busy.
Tom Sardy [00:04:21] A little bit.
George Madsen [00:04:22] You know just about everybody in town. Don’t you, as a result of this?
Tom Sardy [00:04:26] Yeah.
George Madsen [00:04:27] Of all these activities, uh, you also have supported a number of worthwhile causes around town, it seems to me. Have you. Could you name a few, such as? Let’s just say, uh, you have your your backing the airport hard? Yes. Aspen needs an airport, I presume.
Tom Sardy [00:04:50] That’s right. The county commissioners are working on that. And, uh, we hope to have a good airport here yet this summer. Townspeople are very good. We’re picking up a lot of donations, and it looks like we’re going to, with the help of the federal government, the county have an airport.
George Madsen [00:05:09] What are you and your fellow commissioners think that an airport will will do for Aspen? Why, why why an airport?
Tom Sardy [00:05:17] Well, we need it for transportation is a problem in Aspen. It takes an awful long time to get here. Uh, and it’s just going to mean more people quicker.
George Madsen [00:05:33] Do you think that, uh, the the private planes will be a factor in, in bringing business into Aspen, or do you look forward to perhaps some kind of a scheduled airline?
Tom Sardy [00:05:45] We look forward to private planes, corporation planes and a scheduled airline. .
George Madsen [00:05:50] All three?
Tom Sardy [00:05:51] No reason why we shouldn’t have them all.
George Madsen [00:05:53] Hhm. Uh, Tom, uh, to go back a little bit, uh, I’d just like to ask you if you are very happy with politics.
Tom Sardy [00:06:09] Yes, I like politics. It’s interesting.
George Madsen [00:06:12] Well, do you consider yourself a politician?
Tom Sardy [00:06:14] Oh, no. No, no. I always tell the truth, sir. So don’t call me a politician.
George Madsen [00:06:20] All right, Tom, we won’t make that mistake. I would like to ask you one other thing. I know that you have skied in the past. Is there anything about skiing that comes to your mind?
Tom Sardy [00:06:31] Yes. I remember several broken ribs and bunged up legs, but I used to have a lot of fun passing out cards on the hill, advertising my mortuary when I’d see somebody in a heap. That backfired one day, because I was in a heap, a couple fellows were digging me out, and another guy came along and said, we ought to get that fellow that passes out these cards. One fellow said, this is him. So you can’t win.