Thomas E. Love was born on October 1937 and lived until March 7, 2023.
He was an American billionaire businessman. He was the owner, founder, and executive chairman of Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores.
Thomas E. Love was born in Oklahoma City in October 1937, one of six siblings, the son of F. C. Love, a lawyer who was later president of the oil company Kerr-McGee, and Margaret Eugenia Vessels Love.
Aged 13, he left home to be educated as a boarder at St. Gregory’s High School in Shawnee, where he was a standout football player.
Love attended St. John’s University in St. Cloud, Minnesota, but left after less than one semester. He then joined the US Marine Corps and over a three-year career, rose to the rank of corporal. When he left the Marines, he married and decided to try college once more. He dropped out of the University of Oklahoma in 1964.
Initially, Love owned restaurants and car washes, until he discovered an opportunity in abandoned gas stations.
Today, Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores is a national chain with more than 580 locations in 41 states.
Tom and Judy Love married on December 26, 1961. They had four children and lived in Oklahoma City. Three of their children work for the company. Frank Love and Greg Love are co-CEOs, and Jenny Love Meyer is the vice president of communications.
Tom Love died in Oklahoma City on March 7, 2023, at age 85.
Tom Love Obituary
Thomas Eugene Love passed away on March 7, 2023, in Oklahoma City in the comfort of his home surrounded by his family. He was 85.
Tom’s legacy will live on in the values he instilled in his family and company by the way in which he lived his remarkable life and inspired all who had the privilege of knowing him.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, March 11, 2023, at the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine. Burial to follow immediately at Resurrection Memorial Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations in Tom’s memory may be made to Catholic Charities or Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School’s 75th-anniversary campaign.