Tom Gresham was on his way back from the coast last summer, listening intently to the historic special legislative session when the bill to change the Mississippi state flag was introduced.
“I’m going, ‘I can’t believe this is going to happen,’” Gresham told The Enterprise-Tocsin in a recent interview. “It was really a great moment.”
Gresham, who took home the Morris Lewis Citizen of the Year award at Indianola Chamber Main Street’s annual mixer back in the spring, has been a member of the Mississippi Economic Council’s board of directors for years.
Changing the state flag was a big agenda item for Gresham and MEC for the better part of two decades.
“I’m real proud of that effort,” Gresham said. “It was slow, but it finally got done. I think MEC had a big part in that.”
A 1976 Indianola Academy graduate, Gresham received his college education at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
That’s where he met his wife of 39 years, Louise, who moved back with him to Indianola in 1982. Here, they raised three children, Katy Blonkvist (Michael), Thomas (Anna) and Michael.
Gresham and business partner Bill McPherson founded the Double Quick convenience store company after an initial acquisition in 1984 and built it into one of the most recognizable brands in the Delta and one of the strongest industry-wide, in the Southeast.
McPherson and Gresham announced in February of 2020 that Double Quick, with its over 60 stores, was under contract to be sold to South Carolina-based Refuel.
The transaction closed the following April, but it has been far from a normal retirement for Gresham.
“Yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of volunteer work,” Gresham said, laughing.
Gresham and McPherson have really held two full-time jobs over the last two decades, one at Double Quick and the other in volunteer civic service, mostly promoting economic development in the Delta and across the state.
Among many other things, McPherson played a pivotal role in the creation of the B.B. King Museum & Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola.
Gresham, meanwhile, has served on just about every board of note across the state and some nationally, including the before-mentioned MEC, as a commissioner on the Mississippi Gaming Commission, past president of the Society of Independent Gas Marketers of America, past board member of Northwest Mississippi Community Foundation, past board member of Mississippi State Board of Community Colleges, past board member of Mississippi Center for Education Innovation and past president of the Mississippi Association of Convenience Stores.
Locally, he served as co-chairman of Indianola Promise Community, past president of the Indianola Education Foundation Inc., past president of Indianola Rotary Club and past president of Mid-Delta Arts Association.
He is also past president of Delta Council and is still very active in the Delta Strong initiative.
“Delta Council’s footprint was Double Quick’s footprint,” Gresham said.
McPherson and Gresham started Double Quick with the acquisition of just over a dozen stores from an already established brand.
“We bought 16 Mr. Quick stores from SuperValu,” Gresham said, adding that there was already a food service element to the stores. “They were really ahead of their time in the convenience store industry, and we fell right in. It took us a couple of years to figure out which way was up, but we did. We just worked hard and went in and did it and did whatever it took.”
Randy Randall, who had the honor of bestowing the Citizen of the Year award this year, told the story of one of McPherson and Gresham’s first site visits to one of the stores.
Gresham reportedly said, “What have we done?” and grabbed a six pack of beer from the store cooler.
“It was pretty overwhelming,” Gresham said of the incident. “Bill and I were young, you know, 26 years old.”
Whatever apprehensions they might have had at the onset were slowly relieved by the growing success of the stores.
“The first thing we realized was the stores needed a facelift,” Gresham said. “We felt like we needed our own brand. We hired a little small advertising shop out of Jackson, Mississippi to help us with the new name, Double Quick, and help us with the color scheme, blue and green. We set out to clean up the stores, paint and do the repairs.”
As the company grew, Gresham said he and McPherson began to put a lot of focus on labor and training.
“We realized early on that people are your greatest asset,” Gresham said. “We really started investing and training in our team. I think that was probably one of the key differentials for us and our convenience store chains.”
The company eventually grew to 62 stores, including Church’s Chicken and Krystal locations, along with about 1,200 employees.
The closing of the Double Quick sale in 2020 happened to come during the middle of the worst economic crisis in the state’s history, the economic shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Gov. Tate Reeves was putting together Restart Mississippi, a commission designed to present an economic recovery plan to the governor, Gresham was named to the board.
“I promised Louise when we sold Double Quick that I wouldn’t take on any new boards or jobs, and I had to go home and say, ‘Tate Reeves called me,’” he said. “I was the only person from the Delta, and I wanted to make sure that our 19-county Delta region, that we had a seat at the table.”
The group, Gresham said, has presented its long-term and short-term plans to the governor and is no longer actively meeting.
Gresham is still active with multiple family businesses, he said, as well as at his church, St. Stephen’s Episcopal, and although he’ll continue his business and civic duties, he hopes he’ll get to spend more time with his five grandchildren moving forward.
