History of Tom's Lock Service
The story begins in 1968. Dr. E.O. Thompson Sr., known as “Tom” since college, was an optometrist at Plymouth Optical in Winona. After a change in personnel, he had the local hardware store re-key the office lock. The new keys didn’t work very well. Disappointed, and ever the perfectionist, he disassembled the locks and made it work better. This gave him the idea that Winona needs a real locksmith. For a man that had to stay busy all the time, the locksmithing correspondence course was so slow he opened Tom’s Lock Service before completion in June of 1969. Keeping overhead expenses to a minimum, he ran the business from the back porch of his home.
As fate would have it, the same storefront once housed “Gus’s Shoe Repair” who also was a locksmith in the 50’s. Tom bought out Gus’ inventory of keys and key machinery to begin Tom’s Lock Service.
