Thomas "Tommy" Herriot Burkart

Tommy was seldom “Thomas”. Only “Tom” occasionally. He was almost always “Tommy”, his boyhood nickname he never outgrew. That was appropriate. Tommy never lost his boyish bright, wide-eyed curiosity, enthusiasm and humor.

Tommy was born in Charlotte, N.C. April 1, 1982. He grew up in the Chicago suburb of Hinsdale where he and his brother Robbie had happy, rollicking childhoods.

They refurbished a green 1975 Volkswagen Super Beatle named “Walter” as their first car. Walter had the unfortunate habit of catching on fire for various reasons and generally served as the courier of mischief.

Tommy was a proud gay man. He was “out” by age 11. Being gay was integral to his identity all his life. He was open and happy to bring it up and discuss aspects of his gayness.

Once, at a family gathering in Wisconsin he happily showed off a new app on his phone that showed the locations of (numerous) other gay men in the vicinity.

Tommy moved to his parents’ house in Seabrook, South Carolina to start a website business after success in the early years at Pandora, the online music company. He joked that all the Southern men were so polite and nice he couldn’t tell who was gay.

He always loved cars and their promised independence. Tommy founded and operated an online car review website – car-revs-daily.com for 13 years. Sometimes he would write reviews of six cars in long days and nights. He graduated to video reviews early; well before ‘influencer’ was a job. At the pinnacle his site was among the top 10 percent of all sites by visitors. The rub? Working 80 hour weeks, he was making about $300 per month.

He moved his passion to car sales in Charleston, S.C. Making friends and being gregarious came easily, as did the sales, but he didn’t take to arbitrary management types well.

Inevitably, living in this easy-going in-the-moment manner led Tommy into some legendary escapades (not the good kinds). Once he was test driving a Honda for a car-revs review, and Honda told him to keep the mileage down.

Which Tommy took as an invitation to pack his dogs in the new vehicle and drive from South Carolina to Madison, Wisconsin. When he took the car back, the rep asked how the car had so many miles on it. Tommy replied, “I don’t know.” A Wisconsin Wendy’s receipt begged to differ. Honda was not amused and put him in a 2 year review time-out. He never did understand how trouble found him so routinely. Anyone who knew Tommy has a perfect Tommy story to cherish.

Tom got serious in his late 30s and went back to internet marketing running large company SEM campaigns that he had begun after college and before car-revs-daily.com. His easy grasp of the tech world and self-directed work made him a high performer. He had found his calling. He moved to Atlanta around this time and bought a townhouse he and his dogs adored.

He was a voracious reader and information accumulator. He and his father would compete to get first dibs on each week’s issue of The Economist. Their kitchen conversations about business, finance, politics, tech and cars were epic, multi-day events.

Tommy “went out on a high note” excelling at work, happy with money and with many close friends, his Jag, his car reviews and his dogs. Rob says “he was a man untroubled about the future consequences of his actions. He did whatever he wanted, wherever he wanted with whomever he wanted. At. All. Times.” He was fiercely independent.

Tommy is survived by his mother Molly Lillich Burkart, older brother Robbie, his nieces Samantha and Evie and nephew Mattie. His father Jim Burkart predeceased him by a little over one month. Tommy also had one aunt, two uncles and five cousins on the Lillich side of the family. Everybody loved Tommy; he was larger than life and his humor was very infectious. He will be profoundly missed.

At this writing, plans for a memorial are TBD.