On Saturday morning, Nov. 15, Tom and Patty Houlihan shared a story Tom has told his family for years. Someone once asked Martin Luther, the 16th-century theologian known for using everyday actions to explain hope, what he would do if he knew the world was ending tomorrow. Luther’s answer was simple: “I would plant a tree.”

A few minutes later, standing by Butterfield Creek off Hanover Lane in Flossmoor, the Houlihans arrived to find 100 young pawpaw trees planted in Tom’s honor. Family, neighbors, friends and colleagues gathered around him. 

It was a quiet gesture for a man who has spent decades giving this community its voice as a reporter for The Times of Hammond, Indiana, then decades at The Star Newspapers and the Southtown/Star. He stepped away for a number of years before helping to launch the Homewood-Flossmoor Chronicle, taking the Flossmoor beat and writing columns.

The idea for the tree planting came from his son Emmett only a week earlier. 

“We wanted an opportunity for people to come together and show their love for my dad,” he said. “It is something he never would have asked for.”

The location felt natural. 

“This spot is right between our childhood home and the one in Flossmoor where he has spent the rest of his life,” Emmett said. “He walked our dog Louisa on this path. We biked through here to get to school. I have memories here.”

The trees themselves carry their own family history. Tom’s son Joe explained how pawpaws became part of their lives.

“Pawpaw trees are native fruit trees. Chicago is about as far north as they grow,” he said. “For years, Dad became what we jokingly called the local pawpaw enthusiast.”

It started with curiosity. There were family trips to Paw Paw, Michigan, and hikes with Patty in forest preserves in the Palos area. 

“They found Paw Paw Woods and started wondering what these trees even were,” Joe said. “That curiosity just stuck.”

Tom planted his first three pawpaws in 2013. 

“They are quirky trees,” he said. “Quirky fruit too. They look a little prehistoric. And once they start producing, you just want to check on them every day.”

Patty laughed as she listened. 

“He’s been at the vanguard,” she said. “You can quote me on this. This man is totally hip among pawpaw growers.”

Tom also talked about the small community of pawpaw growers that has grown in the South Suburbs.

“I was trying to find out where any pawpaws were. There were hardly any,” he said. “Once I wrote about them in the Chronicle, people started telling me, ‘I have pawpaws.’ It was like shining a little light.”

Tom’s writing often carried that same steady hope. In a 2020 column, he described the derecho that tore through Flossmoor and left trees splintered across town. Even then, he focused on what survived.

“Looking skyward,” he wrote, “it was obvious that the vast majority of the trees made it through the storm and are still growing as big, strong, healthy plants. They survived the worst the derecho dished out. They’ll be OK. Just like us.”

Later in that column, he turned to the three pawpaw trees in his backyard, which he called “my own peculiar plant obsession.” 

He wrote about watching for the dark, blood-colored flowers, hoping for pollination and checking each bud as it grew. He admitted to putting out “a jar filled with fly attractant, I am not making that up” to help the trees along.

Then he ended with the line that summed up why the grove in Flossmoor feels so fitting. “Personally,” he wrote, “I think everyone should grow pawpaws.”

Patty met him years ago in a newsroom. Tom likes to joke that their marriage has been one long, good-natured edit. She stood beside him on Saturday, offering gentle comments as he spoke.

The grove, Emmett said, is meant to be something lasting. 

“It is something living,” he said. “A place to come back to.”

When Tom addressed the group, he kept his words simple. 

“I was not expecting anything like this,” he said. “I am touched.” He looked toward the rows of young trees, already settling into the soil. “It feels hopeful.”

The trees will take years before they bear fruit, but the family says that timing feels right. The grove is a gift for the future, rooted in the years they have spent in this community and in the hope that others will enjoy what grows here long after.

“I want everybody to enjoy these plants,” Tom said.

And when the first pawpaw ripens, with its soft custard-like fruit, it will reflect the man who wrote about these trees, cared for them and helped bring them to the community he loved.

Related stories:

• Flossmoor resident and former Chronicle editor Tom Houlihan gives village $1,000 for pawpaws (Oct. 10, 2021).
• Our overhead canopy endures a freak storm, and waiting for backyard fruit to fall (Sept. 1, 2020)
• Planting trees when the world seems to be going to pieces (July 29, 2019)
• It’s paw paw pollination time, with dreams of homegrown ‘bananas’ (June 4, 2016)
• Harvest time as singular paw paw crop points toward future (Oct. 7, 2018)