Tom Hovel, has resided in Dane County for his whole life, but for his college years.  He originally hails from Sun Prairie. Tom served for 32 years as the first city planner for the City of Fitchburg, starting in June 1986 and retiring in the summer of 2018.  Many advances of historic preservation and the Landmarks Commission were under his tenure as city planner.  City planning is a field which requires system-thinking and to anticipate impacts of human interaction with the environment.  Educationally, he is trained as a geographer, which involves the examination of human interaction with the environment.  Tom has a strong interest in history and occasionally grapples with genealogical research.  Since history often impacts the present, it is a good match to the field of geography.