Louis Thomas "Tom" Conlin, the founder of Conlin Travel, died on March 27 in Ann Arbor, Mich. He was 92.
Tom Conlin
Conlin founded the agency in Ann Arbor in 1959. Conlin Travel was a mainstay on Travel Weekly's Power List for many years.
The agency would grow to include corporate, group and experiential travel, adding divisions in meetings and incentives, consulting, cruise programs and athletic travel. Conlin also ran a travel school until the early 2000s.
Conlin was an innovator in developing alumni travel and events, including around major sporting events like university bowl games and the NCAA college basketball tournament. He was also a forward thinker in experiential travel and was one of the first to charter the Concorde. He paired it with one-way transatlantic cruises aboard the Queen Mary.
He was a recipient of ASTA's Lifetime Achievement Award, and served various leadership roles at ASTA, including president of the Michigan chapter.
Conlin is survived by his wife Carolyn, his children and his extended family.
His son, Chris Conlin, joined Conlin Travel out of college in 1983 and purchased the agency from his father in 2000.
In 2021, Conlin Travel and Frosch formed a corporate travel joint venture, and Frosch went on to be acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2022. Chris, currently senior vice president of affiliates at Chase Travel, recalled working for his father as early as high school.
"What stood out most to me was the respect he earned not only from his employees but from the many industry partners and sales representatives who came through our office," Chris said. "He was widely admired, and even years after his retirement, I was always struck by how highly people spoke of him."
Chris also recalled his father's ability to build relationships with coworkers and industry colleagues as well as the impact he had on the travel industry, especially with his early work in alumni, event and educational travel.
"He was part of the early expansion of the travel agency community," Chris said, "and I'm proud of the mark he made on the industry."