Editor's Note: This article originates from an interview with Tom Burenga II, highlighting how the family was integral to both his Hall of Fame journey and early business success. Read the full story on the 2025 Shortline Legends Hall of Fame Tom Burenga.
Like most shortline successful OEMs, Worksaver's Hall of Fame story includes a strong spouse (Paulette) and children pitching in to help their founding father. All 3 of the Burenga kids (Tom, Christina and Tim) were pulled from school to work farm shows, which Tom Burenga maintains was far more valuable for their lifetime education than was sitting at the desk, even if the school district office didn’t agree with the frequent absences.
As Burenga says, all learned to talk to people, help them find solutions and also observe some great employees do their thing. He also made sure they paid attention to those doing things right.
Tom Burenga II (who today is operations manager at Truland Equipment, an 18-store Deere dealer group in Northwest Ohio and Central Indiana) recalls heading to his first farm show — run by the Wheatbelt Wholesalers in Kansas City, when he was 6. And within a couple of years, demonstrated and sold a number of hinges for seedbox lids at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville.
Youngest sibling Tim remembers selling his first product — a bale spear — in Louisville as well.
While Tim was too young to know the struggles of the early years, he is aware that his dad served as the chief engineering, sales manager and safety man and worked ungodly hours — because that’s what was needed at the time.
Tim notes several traits of his father that he wants to pass on to his kids.
“The first one is don't be afraid to work. Get in there, get dirty, get the job done, and learn how to show somebody else how to do too, so you can develop leadership skills. But probably one of the most important lessons he’s taught was always look at different situations. There's never just one solution. Come up with multiple solutions for a problem and then evaluate them and then pick the best course of action. It takes a little bit more time to do that, but during my time in engineering school, Dad, as he was taught, would look at my work and say, ‘OK, now do it another way.’ It forced me to take the time to create an alternative solution. And that's been very valuable going forward, is just to always look at different ways to solve a problem.”
Tim also admires the investments his dad always wanted to make in the business, including things like an air-conditioned lunchroom to hold plant and safety meetings. And the involvement of the team, too. “It’s not a dictatorship where they’re told what to do all the time. We invest in their thoughts and ideas, which gets ownership in what we're all doing. And we need that because we’re always developing our processes, investing in new technology and changing practices to the most efficient way.”
