Madison – The Wisconsin Safety Council and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development will honor Tom Baumgartner, Director of Safety at Mercury Marine, with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 71st annual Wisconsin Safety & Health Conference on April 23, being held at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells.
Tom Baumgartner’s career in safety started in 1972 when he graduated from the Safety Department at University Wisconsin-Whitewater. He joined Sentry Insurance as the only loss control engineer in Milwaukee, Kenosha and Racine. The experience learned from his loss control days at Sentry landed him back at UW-Whitewater in 1974 when he began teaching Occupational Safety courses in the Broad field undergraduate Safety Program. While at UW-Whitewater Tom developed many close relationships with students who today are fellow safety professionals with whom he continues to have the privilege of working.
In 1975 Tom became an active member of the Wisconsin Safety Council. Tom has served on a number of Safety Council committees over time, including Congress Planning Committee Chair and Advisor Board Chairperson.
Tom’s career took on new challenges in 1979 when he joined Mercury Marine as Manager of OSHA and Safety. In 1985 he was promoted to Director of Safety and took on additional responsibilities for Environmental Compliance. The role of Environmental, Health and Safety expanded and evolved from a one man job in 1979 to a staff of 15 EHS professionals serving 3500 Mercury employees’ throughout the world.
Today, Tom works on developing safety programs aimed at meeting the demands for the new generation of workers at Mercury, where safety is a valued and an integral part of the culture.
In February 2013, after 41 years in the Safety profession, Tom will be reducing his busy full time schedule to part-time. He has said that some of his fondest memories are the relationships which have developed with fellow safety professionals through the Safety Council and truly values the mission and contributions of the Council to the state.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was established to honor those individuals who have devoted their lives to the safety of others.
About Wisconsin Safety Council
The Wisconsin Safety Council is the state’s leading provider of workplace safety training and programming. Established in 1923, it is an educational division of WMC, the state manufacturers’ association, and is the state chapter of the National Safety Council. For more information, contact the Wisconsin Safety Council at (800) 236-3400 or visit www.wisafetycouncil.org.
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For Further Information Contact:
Janie Ritter, jritter@wisafetycouncil.org, (608) 843-4066
Katy Pettersen, kpettersen@wmc.org, (608) 516-6684
