Tom Love
Inducted 1994

Tom Love was born in Oklahoma City in October, 1937. He married his wife Judy on December 26, 1961. He graduated from St. Gregory’s High School in Shawnee, OK and attended St. John’s University in St. Cloud, MN and the University of Oklahoma.

In 1964 with no assets, Tom and Judy Love incorporated Musket Corporation, the predecessor to Love’s Country Stores, and leased an abandoned filling station in Watonga, OK. This was repeated in about 40 stations until 1972 when the First Love’s Country Store opened in Guymon, OK. With this first store came another first, a convenience store with self service gasoline which was unknown in most of the country at that time.

By 1981 Love’s was successfully operating 100 combination convenience and filling station stores. In 1982 Love’s moved on to the interstate highway for the first time in Amarillo, TX, with the new, bigger Love’s Travel Stops.

Today Love’s has 130 stores and employs 1700 people in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Arkansas. GO! Systems, the commercial fleet fuel program offered through Love’s, now has more than 300 locations accepting the GO! Card in seven states. Free-standing gift stores, the Oklahoma Trading Posts, were opened in 1993.

Tom Love has been active in both state and national oil marketer’s activities. In October, 1971, he was elected Vice-President of the National Oil Jobbers Council (NOJC) from the South Central Region and went on to be Senior Vice-President of NOJC in October 1973 and President in 1975.

In 1991, Tom was presented with the “Corporation of the Year” award by the Oklahoma City chapter of Sales and Marketing Executives International.
 

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