Tom Lillie has spent more than five decades helping others plan for the future.

As a partner at the Flint-based accounting firm Lewis & Knopf, he built a career guiding small businesses and families through the complicated financial decisions that shape their lives, helping entrepreneurs launch companies, advising families as they accumulated wealth and ensuring that what they built would last for generations.

But if you ask Lillie about the work he’s most proud of, he’s unlikely to mention titles held or milestones reached. Instead, he will tell you about the people he has helped along the way.

“I enjoy seeing people apply the things I suggested,” he says. “Watching them build something, develop wealth, plan for their families’ futures, improve things along the way. That’s really gratifying.”

It is the same philosophy he has brought to his 14 years of service as Treasurer for the FIM Board of Trustees. And his quiet, steady leadership is precisely what the Mrs. J. Dallas Dort Award was created to recognize.

Established in 1979, the award honors individuals who have given significantly of their personal time to advance the success of FIM. Named for Marcia Webb Dort, it celebrates a legacy of volunteerism that continues to shape Flint’s cultural landscape today. Lillie now joins a distinguished group of recipients whose service has strengthened both the organization and the community it serves.

“Tom leads with wisdom, care and humility — and it shows in everything he does,” says FIM President and CEO Rodney Lontine. “His financial stewardship, thoughtful planning and passion for FIM and its programming have been absolutely invaluable, helping shape our operations and set us up for a strong future.”

Better yet, says Lontine, he’s simply an all-around good person to have in your corner. “He’s exactly the kind of friend every nonprofit hopes to find, and honestly, the kind of person everyone should get to know,” he says.

For Lillie, however, recognition has never been the goal.

“Pretty much everything I do in life, I do because it’s important and I enjoy doing it,” he says. “I don’t do it for the recognition. I’m the person who works in the shadows to make sure it happens.”

A Career of Care

Although he’s made a career of planning for others, his own path started with a major change in plans.

As a French horn player in his high school band, Lillie had long intended to study music. But after a fateful tour of

the Central Michigan University campus and a persuasive conversation with his tour guide, an accounting student, he changed his major and never looked back. (Although he did continue to get his music fix in the brass section of the CMU marching band.)

When he graduated from CMU in 1974, he joined Lewis & Knopf, the firm where he would spend the next half century building a career as a trusted adviser to clients across Michigan.

From the start, his work centered on people.

Working with small startup businesses, Lillie helped entrepreneurs build strong financial foundations by developing systems, setting plans and guiding decisions that would enable their businesses to grow.

And as those businesses evolved, so did his role.

“Once they started accumulating wealth,” he says, “we had to start thinking about personal financial planning, estate planning, trust work — how to protect what they had built.”

In many cases, Lillie remained a trusted adviser for decades, guiding clients through every stage of the business lifecycle.

From very early on, that level of trust did not go unnoticed. By 1979, Lillie was promoted to partner at the firm – faster than anyone else in its history.

Tom Shade, son of the partner who hired and mentored Lillie at Lewis & Knopf, has been a colleague of Lillie’s for nearly 50 years.

“I asked my father why Tom became a partner faster than anyone else,” Shade says. “And he said, ‘I could not afford to lose him because he takes such good care of my clients.’”

But that care was not restricted to clients. Lillie’s colleagues have also reaped the benefit of his generous spirit and eager mentorship.

“Tom loves to teach the young people as they join our firm,” Shade says. “He imparts his knowledge in a way that encourages them to come back and ask more questions. He has always believed that the only dumb question is the one that wasn’t asked.”

It’s a philosophy that reflects both his patience and his belief in shared growth, which would later define his leadership beyond the firm.

Bringing Structure to the Arts

For much of his professional career, Lillie’s responsibilities left little time for volunteer leadership.

That changed in 2012.

He had recently stepped away from many administrative duties at Lewis & Knopf, and found himself with more time to devote to nonprofit work. As it happened, FIM was on the hunt for a new treasurer, and as a patron of the Flint Symphony

Orchestra and Whiting Auditorium since 1974, he relished the opportunity to contribute his expertise to an organization he and his wife had supported for decades.

“When I joined the board, my personal mission was to bring structure and planning to the organization and to encourage board member involvement,” he explains.

Drawing on his experience advising businesses, Lillie helped develop systems and processes that would strengthen the organization’s financial oversight and long-term strategy.

One of his early initiatives was establishing the Finance Committee’s “Tasks for Success” framework and a structured committee calendar — tools designed to ensure that board leadership remained focused on planning, accountability and risk management.

For Lillie, those principles are universal.

“Whether it’s a small business or a nonprofit organization, you have to have a plan,” Lillie says. “You need to know what actions you’re going to take if something unexpected happens.”

Jessica Carlo, FIM VP of Finance and Administration, works closely with Lillie and describes his presence as both grounding and empowering.

“As board treasurer, Tom has been both a partner and mentor in my work,” she says. “He approaches conversations patiently and with a genuine willingness to share his knowledge, always taking time to talk through decisions that need to be made, and more importantly, why they matter.

“He really cares about the financial health of the organization,” Carlo adds. “His guidance has been invaluable. Not just to me, but to all of FIM.”

In fact, Lillie’s contributions extend well beyond FIM. Over the years, he has served on the board of the Flint Institute of Arts, including two years as its president, and currently serves on the investment committee for the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

Across each role, he brings the same perspective: thoughtful planning, careful risk assessment and a willingness to ask difficult questions. And while he prides himself on listening to his clients far more than he talks, he knows when to use his voice.

“I’ve learned to be outspoken,” he says. “You have to be willing to talk about the tough things and work through them. If I see something that’s not right, I say something.”

A Life in the Arts

Lillie’s commitment to the performing arts began long before he joined the FIM board.

He traces it back to his grandparents.

“They believed in the arts,” he says. “From a young age, they took us to museums and to plays. They believed that if you enjoy the arts, you should help make sure they’re going to be around.”

He carried that lesson with him, becoming not only a patron and donor, but an advocate for the role the arts play in building community.

Kay, his wife of 52 years, shares that same perspective.

“We have always derived great satisfaction in being involved with the arts,” she says. “They add another important dimension to everyday life and open the door to new experiences and different viewpoints.

“Especially in today’s chaotic world, I think we need a way to connect with other people so that we can all be part of something positive, and the arts can accomplish that like nothing else.”

“We both believe the Cultural Center is the place to be,” Lillie adds.

His belief in the arts even shapes his work with financial clients. When discussing charitable giving, he encourages individuals to consider the organizations that have made a difference in their lives — including cultural institutions.

“If they mention the arts,” he says, “I mention the Cultural Center.”

Living Fully

Outside of his professional and volunteer work, Lillie’s life is filled with travel, music and time spent with his wife.

The two met during their college years at CMU, and have spent the last five decades enjoying life together.

In addition to their mutual love of the arts, the two share a wanderlust and passion for travel. So when Kay retired in 1999 from her 25-year career as an English teacher in Mt. Morris schools, she quickly settled into her next role: “Fun Planner.”

Since that time, the couple has traveled extensively, visiting destinations across Europe and beyond, often returning to favorite places more than once.

“We’ve been to Italy six times now,” Lillie says. “France four times.”

Their travels are guided by a simple philosophy: good food, good wine and beautiful places. “And not necessarily in that order,” he jokes.

Even on the way to a new destination, the couple often looks back on their previous adventures, revisiting the hundreds of photographs from earlier trips, each one better than the last.

“They’re all favorites,” he says.

Perspective and Purpose

In recent months, the calling to live life to the fullest has been as present as ever, as Lillie has faced a new challenge.

After receiving a diagnosis of ALS last fall, he has experienced changes in his speech, though he remains physically active and continues to work and volunteer.

For someone who has always approached life with intention, the diagnosis has only reinforced his perspective.

“If anything, it confirmed the perspective I already had,” he says. “I’ve always lived as if I was going to die tomorrow.”

When he received the news, he thanked his doctors, and then made a declaration.

“I told them I was going to go out to finish living my life.”

He still plays golf. He continues working during tax season. He and Kay still frequent the Cultural Center. And he remains deeply engaged in the community he has served for decades.

Quiet Leadership, Lasting Impact

For more than 50 years, Lillie has built both his career and his life on the premise of helping others succeed. And he’s done it all both eagerly and quietly, by listening intently, guiding with patience and showing up where he is needed most.

While he doesn’t want recognition for his work, he hopes the ripple of his effort will inspire others to follow his lead, noting that the future of organizations like FIM depends on thoughtful stewardship and continued community support.

And ultimately, the success of the arts comes down to people.

“These organizations don’t operate by themselves,” he explains, referring not just to personnel, but the volunteers, patrons and donors who sustain the work. “They operate because of the people who are in place to support them.”

That belief, combined with decades of service, mentorship and thoughtful leadership, is precisely what the Mrs. J. Dallas Dort Award was created to celebrate.

“Tom’s dedication to the arts in Flint has left a real and lasting mark, and we’re so grateful for it,” Lontine says of the legacy five decades in the making. “FIM and this community are better because Tom has been a part of them.”