Michael Toth, Concord Advertising Legend, Dies at 62

The following obituary is from Dee Funeral Home:

Michael Cromack Toth, husband, father, advertising legend and founder, president, and chief creative officer of Toth + Co, died at Massachusetts General Hospital on December 11, 2014. He was 62.

Born on April 7, 1952, in Greenville, SC, to Jackie Vigeant, a dress shop manager, and Dick Toth, an Air Force journalist, Mike grew up an army brat and the oldest of five children. The family moved extensively, and, as Mike recalled, he did not have “many memories, except a green toy truck, a dog named Star and an imaginary friend named Dumpy.” His family eventually settled in San Antonio, TX, where Mike spent his childhood and teenage years. Precocious and nimble, Mike found success in football, first as a nose tackle at Roosevelt High School and then at Trinity University and Holy Cross College, to which he earned scholarships as a middle linebacker. In 1974, Mike was named “All East” at Holy Cross.

It was at Holy Cross where Mike found his greatest love and source of inspiration - Susan Currie. Initially, she found him not ambitious enough for her, and told him so, comments that ignited the fire that would drive his many successes. Mike and Susan were married at St. Francis Xavier church in Hyannis, Massachusetts on August 5, 1977.

After graduating from Holy Cross with a B.A. in fine art, Mike worked as a “qualified” French-speaking flight attendant for American Airlines. It was in this short-lived job that he got his fateful introduction to fashion advertising, when Mike sketched an ad for a neck tie on a cocktail napkin, a first-class passenger, who turned out to be an executive from Wembley, offered him a job on the spot. Needless to say, Mike took it. He likened the experience to a “master class in branding.” In 1982, Mike opened his own design studio, Toth Design, in New Orleans. One of his earliest clients was J.Crew -- named such by Mike’s suggestion. He earned national acclaim by presenting the first “lifestyle” catalogue, a groundbreaking concept that would define the fledgling brand, revitalize the catalogue business, and establish Mike as a “branding guru.”

In 1984, Mike moved his headquarters to Concord, Mass. It was from this quaint Boston outpost that Toth + Co, under Mike’s creative direction, took Tommy Hilfiger from $80 million in sales to a multi-billion dollar international company. Mike expanded the agency to New York City in 1995 and, in the same year, was named one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Fashion.” Toth + Co, now headquartered in Boston, has helped develop marketing strategies for such iconic brands as Wrangler, Coach, Nautica, Johnston & Murphy footwear, Timex, Playskool, Chico’s, Keds, Hickey Freeman, and Hyatt, among others.

In 2003, Mike was diagnosed with tonsil and tongue cancer, a predicament he fought off for the next eleven years with the same focus and expansive optimism that defined his success. Even after intensive radiation treatments and surgeries took his ability to eat and speak, he continued to pitch and win new business for Toth + Co, and to live his life in full Technicolor, “embracing the old, new, me” as he wrote. He continued to cook for family and friends, and travel the world fishing and hunting. A talented photographer, it was rare to see Mike without a camera in his hand. He considered himself “the luckiest man in the world.”

In 2011, Mike wrote to his family:

I am so happy to be here and to have had my 34th wedding anniversary with the finest woman who made me the success I am today by quelling my small thinking and laziness.

To have seen my kids’ graduations.

Walked Mika down the aisle.

To have held my grandchildren.

To have attended Max’s art opening.

To have fished with Zack in Argentina.

To have seen Kezia get Nana’s Jag.

My hopes are to get Red on a horse and run a barrel race.

For her to find a good guy that gives her everything she needs.

Get Mika making more money than she spends on babysitters.

See Max have a great multi-media success that sells out and buy a house.

See Zack settle down and leverage his amazing mind and interpersonal skills.

Life is great.

I am so in love with all of you.

Mike lived to see everything he hoped to see and more, and credited his surgeon, Dr. Daniel Deschler, of Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and the team at Massachusetts General Hospital, with giving him the opportunity to do so.

He is survived by his lifeline, devoted nurse, advocate, and true love, Susan Currie Toth. His four children; Max Toth, Kezia Toth, Mika Toth (Francis O’Neill), and Zack Toth (Frances Carr Toth), and five grandchildren. Also two sisters, Jennifer and Debbie. And two brothers, Greg and Ricky. And his number one fan, his mother-in-law, Pat Currie.

A Funeral Mass for Mike will be celebrated on Sunday, December 21 at 1:30 p.m. at St. Irene Church in Carlisle, Mass., with a burial service and reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Daniel Deschler Head and Neck Cancer Research Fund at the Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary: www.masseyeandear.org/makeagift/miketoth/

If you would like to share your memories of him, we invite you to email them to rememberingmike@toth.com Arrangements under the care of Dee Funeral Home of Concord, Susan M. Dee and Charles W. Dee Funeral Directors. www.deefuneralhome.com.