Thomas Gene “Tom” Spiece, 74, of Wabash, Indiana, died Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at Parkview Wabash Hospital. He was born on August 20, 1948, in Wabash, to Richard I. “Dick” and Betty June (Young) Spiece.
Friend Joel Geyer writes: Tom’s grandfather, “Sockey” Spiece, ran a pool hall with gambling in back, in the small farm town of Roann, Indiana. Tom’s father, Dick, was a supply sergeant in WWII under General Patton serving across Africa, Sicily, and Italy. After the war, Dick saw an opportunity and seized it. He bought up large batches of army surplus and sold them town-to-town out the back of a truck (also surplus). Dick’s goods were advertised as 3-cents on the dollar, specifically: Leather boots 65¢, gas masks $1, bicycles $5, even parachutes $21. By the 1950’s he opened the bricks-and-mortar, Dick’s Trading Post in Wabash, Indiana. As army surplus was fading, Dick’s son, Tom, saw a new opportunity and seized it. In 1976, he bought the store and streamlined it selling popular hot ticket items like jeans, boots, and tennis shoes. He sold every name-brand a couple bucks cheaper than anyone else. With a peak of eight Spiece stores, he made millions all the while starring in his own brazen, off-the-wall TV commercials. In Egypt, with a caravan of sixty camel drivers behind him, he said with a straight face, microphone in hand, “These are Nubian Camel Drivers, some of the shrewdest traders in the world. Let’s see where they get their tennis shoes?” The camel crew answered one at a time, “Ah, Spiece! Spiece!” Over 50 TV spots followed filmed in Bora Bora, Bangkok, Agra, Dubai, Nairobi, and Istanbul. Brazen, for sure. Tom was a double-edged sword. If you were his friend, he would cut you a big piece of Helen Wittey’s “Cheery Cherry Pie” that he bid $700 for and won at a county fair auction. It was flakey.. If you were his enemy? Let’s not go there. But in his memorabilia cluttered office, he pasted on the wall a thank you letter from a kid who won the highest honor given to 4-H livestock, a Purple Ribbon. The kid scribbled, “Dear Mr. Spiece, Thank you for buying my hog.”
He is survived by his siblings, William (Leveta) Spiece and Cynthia (Tim) Hicks; and was preceded in death by his parents and his brother James Richard Spiece.
Per Tom’s request there will be no services. Arrangements by Grandstaff-Hentgen Funeral Service, Wabash.
The memorial guest book for Thomas may be signed at www.grandstaff-hentgen.com.
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