Thomas Rettberg was born on Christmas Day, 1945 at The Hospital in Sidney, NY. He attended public schools in his hometown, and on high school graduation day in 1964, he received his diploma from his father, Frank Rettberg, President of the Sidney Central School Board.
In 1968, Tom graduated from Syracuse University,where he was the President of Alpha Kappa Psi, a professional business fraternity. The day after graduation, he accepted a position with IBM Corporation,one of the world's most highly respected technology leaders,at an exciting time of major innovation. He remained with IBM during its peak performance years, until his retirement 30 years later.
But before entering the corporate world, Tom served with the United States Marine Corps for three years, where he designed and implemented a civilian payroll system for Parris Island. He was honorably discharged in 1971.
Tom was honored as the #1 IBM nationwide product financing sales leader in 1983 and again in again in 1993. He financed a $76 million and a $14 million data center move to Atlanta; served as the Area Manager of financing in Atlanta for over six years; and grew the annual revenues more than 20% each year. He served as National Leader for IBM Credit Corporation for the ESQ program, one of the most successful offerings that IBM Credit Corporation ever rolled out. Tom's expertise was in product, services and software sales, creative packaging,financing,and management. While with IBM, Tom lived in Endicott, NY, Philadelphia, PA and Atlanta, GA.
When he retired from IBM, Tom joined Mainline Information Services, an IBM Business Partner, where he served as the Director of Portfolio Management, and served as the liaison to IBM Global Financing
Tom volunteered with the Southern Tier Opportunity Coalition,where he was a leader in negotiating a $7 million loan from IBM Corporation to establish the Linux Technology Center at Binghamton University. Through the years,Tom has volunteered at the Eggleston Children's Hospital,Meals on Wheels,Habitat for Humanity,the Epilepsy Foundation and the Olympic Games.
Tom was involved with SCSAA from its inception. With his uncle, Bob Chantler,he helped the initial group of ladies create an alumni association of all graduation classes. Bob set up a database of classmate information at a time when computers were just beginning to serve that need. He and Tom set up the first student scholarship awarded by SCSAA. Tom emceed the Alumni Luncheon in 1999 and was involved with Bob, Terry Dermody and Karen Cycon in weekly long distance phone calls for much of the initial planning for the alumni association.
Tom's organizational and managerial skills, his natural curiosity,his professional demeanor and work ethic,mixed with his sense of humor and love of people,enabled him to be a talented leader in his career field, to contribute to his business community and to offer help to people in need