By Ken Klein, Executive Vice President, OAAA
Leo Hickman makes high-end violins.
And, if you’re lucky, he’ll play one for you . . . foot-tapping old-time fiddle music.
Three of Hickman’s grandkids are fiddlers, too: “I love watching them play and grow. I hope someday they will own and play my instruments.”
From January 1977 to 2006, Hickman ran Hoosier Outdoor Advertising. When he took over after his father’s death, the company owned some 900 faces. When he sold to Lamar Advertising Company, Hoosier Outdoor had more than 1,500 faces in southern Indiana, southeastern Illinois, and southwestern Ohio.
Rounding up, Hickman calculates growth from 900 to 1,500 faces as near-doubling.
“I get up every day,” he says, “expecting good things to continue to come my way.”
On June 7, 2018, Hickman will be 70. His email signoff displays a boxed statement of his philosophy: Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. In “retirement,” Hickman:
- Still wins in court
- Dislikes speed bumps, but now avoids them, and,
- “Plays a mean fiddle,” says friend and billboard builder Jon Odom of Productivity Fabricators in Richmond, IN.
Music Runs Deep
Hickman began playing string instruments in Catholic grade school.
In 2013, he was accepted into a specialized degree program at Indiana University that teaches violin-making, as well as appreciation for great instruments like those made by the Stradivari family in Italy.
Hickman’s instructor at the university’s Jacobs School of Music was Thomas Sparks, a recording artist and former US Irish Fiddle Champion. Hickman studied with Sparks through the spring of 2017, making two violins appraised at around $10,000 each.
Two violins made by Leo Hickman
Fiddle music is played on violins. Hickman — a fiddler — performs in Indiana, West Virginia, and Tennessee (Hickmanleo@gmail.com, 812-322-5649).
“My music and my instruments are my passion now, as well as my family,” he says, pointing out that his self-made instruments sound nearly as good as multi-million-dollar violins owned by the university.
Do Not Mess with Leo
Hickman and his wife own a limited-liability company (LLC) called Monroe Liberty, which invests in local properties.
The State of Indiana recently condemned a parcel of Hickman’s land for an Interstate project, tussling with Hickman in court (State of Indiana v. Monroe Liberty, LLC).
“We received a favorable decision in court recently,” he says.
Everyone has a “Leo Story”
Leo Hickman stories are common in Bloomington (population 84,465). Local political operative Jim Pfaff, now chief of staff to a congressman in Kentucky, admiringly recalls that Hickman’s distain for speed bumps inspired him to accelerate.
Hickman’s current outlook on speed bumps in college-town Bloomington: “In my old age, I have become wiser and just stay off those streets. It’s easier on my car, and makes my wife of 50 years happy.”
Hickman is friends with the meek and the mighty. A framed photo at his home in Bloomington shows the Hickman’s with friends/neighbors Karen and Mike Pence, now vice president.
To the billboard world, Hickman sends holiday greetings, adding, “I hope we get a chance to play some music together again someday.”
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