share of detours along the road to success, of course, but Tom never gave up. He shares with us some of the many lessons he learned along his life journey.
And oh yeah - he’s my dad!
Starting out in Trucking
In the bustling trucking industry of the mid-20th century, one company stood out as a giant in New England: the Guyott Company. Headquartered in Rhode Island and New Haven, Connecticut, Guyott specialized in transporting liquid materials such as gasoline, jet fuel, and kerosene. With a fleet of over 150 tractor-trailers, the company played a crucial role during World War II, transporting fuel to Westover Air Base in Massachusetts to support the war effort. After the war, the company continued to grow, eventually acquiring a larger competitor in Massachusetts called Trimont, solidifying its position as a powerhouse in the industry.
“I started working summers at Guyott when I was just 14,” Tom recalls. His job involved handling a "two-man rig" used for road oiling, a precursor to modern asphalt paving. His mornings began at 3:30 a.m., checking the oil and water of the trucks and driving without a license to pick up loads of asphalt at Koppers Company, a sprawling facility in New Haven. By the time the drivers arrived at 6:30 a.m., he had the trucks’ loads heated and ready to go. His days were long, filled with hard, hot work under the summer sun.
Despite the grueling schedule, Tom developed a passion for the trucking industry. A chance meeting with Lib Lewis, a truck dealer, planted a seed in his mind. “Lib said to me, ‘Someday you’re gonna come to work for me,’” he remembers. At the time, it seemed like an offhand remark to a teenager. But after graduating college, while Tom was managing an asphalt plant for the Guyott Company, he received a call from Lewis, reminding him of his promise. “So I ended up leaving Guyott and I went to work for Lewis doing what I really wanted to do, which was selling trucks.” Thus began his journey in truck sales.
Entering the World of Sales
Starting out, his dreams of selling large, Class 8 trucks were quickly dashed. Instead, he found himself selling smaller delivery trucks for DIVCO (Detroit Industrial Vehicle Company), from one of Lewis’s three dealerships. These trucks were commonly used for home deliveries, including milk trucks that were a staple in American neighborhoods at the time. "It was disappointing," he admits, "but I worked my assigned territory across northern Connecticut, learning the ropes of the business and gaining invaluable experience with fleet customers."
His persistence paid off after a year when he convinced Lewis to let him sell heavy-duty trucks on the condition that he maintained his quota of smaller truck sales. The customers he was given, however, were notoriously tough. “So the joke was on me because what they gave me was a series of yellow cards with customers' names on them that they had apparently called on for years and were never able to sell. When they handed me the cards they had to be laughing up their sleeves because they knew that there was no chance I was going to sell these customers.” Determined not to be discouraged, he spent the next two years knocking on doors, facing rejection after rejection, but refusing to give up. His hard work and determination eventually bore fruit as he began to sell the heavy-duty trucks he had always wanted to sell, turning even the toughest clients into customers.
Tom’s success didn't stop there. He rose from salesman to sales manager and eventually became the general manager of the Wallingford dealership. When DIVCO went out of business, the dealership took on the GMC truck franchise and a trailer line. Seeing his chance, Tom approached Lewis about buying him out. Lewis agreed. And thus started the long, grueling process of becoming a GMC dealer. This journey required more than just filling out extensive paperwork; it required capital, and that meant securing credit from a bank—a seemingly impossible feat for a young man without substantial collateral. After being turned down by nearly every bank in the New Haven area, his perseverance led him to an unexpected source of help.
Launching His Own Dealership
While discussing his predicament with the Paolella brothers, owners of Plastecrete Corporation and one of his major fleet customers, he learned they had founded their own bank, American National Bank. “So we went to their branch in Hamden. We walk up to the second floor, and low and behold, their executive vice president is there. And when this poor man looked up from his desk, I saw the blood draining right out of his face,” (laughs) “because you’ve got two founders of the bank standing in front of him along with a kid that he had refused for credit. So they went on to tell this VP that they knew me for a number of years, found me to be an upstanding guy, and thought that my application for credit should be - reconsidered. Two days later, I was approved for a $500,000 line of credit—a fortune at the time," he recounts, still sounding amazed.
Still, there was one last hurdle. General Motors had reservations about keeping the dealership in Wallingford, favoring New Haven or North Haven instead. However, with the help of a close friend and his own relentless drive, he managed to convince GM to stick with Wallingford, securing his place as a GMC dealer. "That was a turning point," he reflects. "After all the paperwork, the meetings, and the stress, it finally paid off."
Advice for Future Generations
Reflecting on his journey from a teenage summer worker to a successful truck dealer, he offers advice to the next generation: "Never give up. It’s easier to succeed when you’re passionate about what you do. Set your goals, work hard, and never watch the clock. Don’t compare yourself to others; focus on doing the best you can every single day. And I promise you, if you do that, you will enjoy success in one form or another. "
Tom Morico
I
t is our privilege to feature Tom Morico, Sr. as the very first leader to be featured on Connecticut Business Leaders. Tom grew up in the trucking industry. His hard work and perseverance took him on a lifetime journey from truck driver to salesman to President of Lewis Truck & Trailer of Wallingford. He had his fair