Tom Pepin: Health Care Philanthropist of the Year
Tom Pepin (Thomas Pepin) took over the family business in 1982 and has embraced his family’s commitment to the community, making it a mission of his own. One of Tom Pepin’s most recognizable projects is Pepin Heart Hospital at University Community Hospital. Tom Pepin is a Florida native, born in Gainesville but moved to Tampa at age 14 when his father acquired the distributorship here.
Who is your hero? My father, Art Pepin. I have never met anyone kinder or more compassionate. He treated everyone the same regardless of their stature in life.
Tell us something unique about yourself many people don’t know: I cry when I see any commercial or movie that has to do with children and families. Oh heck, I cry at some point in all movies regardless of what they are about.
What is your proudest accomplishment and why? When my four daughters and fiancé (now wife, she passed this test) completed a five-night Outward Bound course at more than 11,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies with me. To experience wilderness training and to witness us banding together to overcome adversity and physical challenges will be a crowning moment in all of our lives.