I continued to work in integration, as VP  and founder of Diversified Systems' Mid-Atlantic operations and head of their domestic and international marketing, which I did until late 2011.  It's fascinating stuff, technical, creative and challenging.


Marketing and Creativity

Much of my work has been in marketing. I marketed for Whitlock,  did all the marketing for TGS and currently oversees marketing development at Diversified. For a time I was a partner in The Kingma Agency and continue as a strategic partner with them. I have provided copywriting and other marketing services for many years on a freelance basis. Why, when I have another full-time job? Simple - I love it and I am good at it and I like to see people succeed.

I've applied creativity to all sorts of endeavors, from poetry to photography, from corporate organizational issues to drama. He has written and acted in plays, sang in and directed musical groups (including Sing Out Roanoke Valley), designed interiors, created technical spaces that were beautiful and ergonomic, assisted in corporate reorganizing, and much more. I write. I photograph. I draw. I even preach now and again.

Mosty recently however, my work has focused on words and images. I do a fair amount of copywriting, and I write poetry, magazine articles and an odd short story here and there.

Let's Get Personal

I grew up Methodist and was an Baptist most of my adult life. My mom worked at a Presbyterian Seminary for over 25 years, and I find a lot to like there too. Church for me is far more about spirit than dogma, so I feel comfortable in most traditions. Comfortable enough I ended up going to seminary and in 1998, began a ministry focused on discovering and using your spiritual gifts.

I read. I read everything from cereal boxes to books to poetry. I like to garden and hike. I love movies, particularly vintage films, adventure movies and chick flicks" (You figure out that combination, if you can.).

I lived in Virginia for most of my life, leaving me with a the dreaded southern accent and a lust for country ham. Then I moved to West Pawlet, Vermont in 2009,where I live today. I have a weakness for cats and travel (and I will go anywhere from the next town to overseas), and a bigger weakness for antique shops and auctions.

I run Quarry House with a simple mission, which you can read here, and with an even simpler philosophy, which you can read here.

About Quarry House

I've been accused of being a Renaissance Man. I've also been accused of being flighty. Could be some truth to both. But I know this, I have always had a wide variety of interests, and life's been good to me and allowed me to work on all sorts of fascinating things.

In 1998, I began to try to pull all those things together, and created Summit Manor as the umbrella company to do the work, get paid and keep track of it all. (Summit Manor was the old farmhouse I lived in, near Roanoke, Virginia.).

When I moved to Vermont, I bought a small old house, built in 1800, that is largely surrounded by an abandoned slate Quarry. I began to call the house the Quarry House, and so, when I moved here, I also changed the name of my company.

On the surface, Quarry House is just me. But in reality, it's something of a consortium. You see, over 25 years of creative work, I've gained the friendship of many other highly talented professionals in all sorts of fields. And depending on the project and client, I bring those people and companies to the table.

My clients don't pay for overhead or services they don't need or use, yet have the advantage of a nationwide network of experts and talent. I get to choose just the right people for the job. It's a partnership mentality that is getting a lot of press these days, but I've been doing it for over a decade.

So that's me and that's Quarry House. I hope this helps answer a bit of what you wanted to know when you clicked on the "about us" tab. If you want to know more, then contact me, and let's talk. Everything begins with an idea and a conversation.

Tom Atkins