As fall approaches, Tom Huxtable ’73 has five enormous pumpkins growing in a patch three blocks from his home. The largest already weighs 470 pounds. During this peak growing season, its weight increases by as much as 30 pounds a day, making it a bit of a public spectacle in Lake City, Michigan, population 830.
“People stop to look all the time,” Huxtable said. “You can see the pumpkins from the road, and people walk up to the patch. Kids, especially, are fascinated. If they’re wandering through, the only thing I ask is that they don’t step on the vines.”
Huxtable has a knack for growing things, from real estate to gargantuan squash. His business, Windermere Real Estate in Renton, Washington, eventually grew to 62 agents and, over about 20 years, sold an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 homes. After retiring to Michigan, Huxtable brought that same work ethic and persistence to his passion for growing pumpkins of extraordinary proportions.
“I’d like to grow a 1,000-pounder,” he said. “Last year, I grew one that weighed 896 pounds, but I’m not having as good of luck this year. My largest will probably weigh around 700 pounds.”
Growing pumpkins the size of a refrigerator isn’t as easy as it looks. Huxtable begins the process in May by planting genetically superior seeds (the best can cost up to $100 each) in disposable Solo cups. He places the cups into a warm oven until they germinate, then onto a windowsill until the risk of frost passes and finally plants the seedlings into fertilized soil. In his jeans and Hastings College cap, he spends about an hour a day tending the pumpkins.
“I offer the pumpkins some words of encouragement before I leave the patch at night,” he said. “And I make anyone who comes to see them offer their encouragement…and pick a few weeds.”
His 896-pound pumpkin placed seventh at the 2025 Michigan Pumpkin Growers Association weigh-off in St. Johns, Michigan. The competition attracts giant-produce enthusiasts who lug in pumpkins and other massive fruits and vegetables, including a 6.5-pound tomato, a 1,000-pound squash and a 20-foot cornstalk. In the pumpkin division, the winner weighed nearly a ton.
After harvest, Lake City public works crews use a forklift and flatbed truck to move Huxtable’s pumpkins to different places in the community like the local library, barber shop and city welcome sign. High school art students and the women’s auxiliary decorate the pumpkins. Kids pose on top while their parents take photos.
Once the pumpkins begin to deteriorate, Huxtable donates them to local dairy farms, where cows happily consume them.
Taking root at Hastings
Huxtable, originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, and son of a Presbyterian pastor, chose Hastings College because he wanted to attend a small liberal arts college. His sister Ann Huxtable-Scates graduated from HC in 1980.
A business administration graduate, Huxtable especially remembers Professor Roger Doerr, with whom he has remained friends.
“I enjoyed the smallness of the campus,” Huxtable said. “You weren’t really lost there. It was a really close-knit group of people, and we had a lot of fun.”
He returned to Hastings for his 50-year Golden Graduation in 2023 and reconnected with classmates he hadn’t seen in decades.
“It was fun to see everybody and get reacquainted,” he said. “Since then, I’ve kept up with some of my friends that I hadn’t seen in literally 40 or 50 years. Now we stay in touch and have rendezvoused several times in Columbus, Lincoln and Omaha.”
A legacy that keeps growing
Over the years, Huxtable has continued to support Hastings College financially. Most notably, he established the Huxtable Family Scholarship in memory of his wife, Denise, who died in 2020.
The scholarship reflects her career as a systems analyst for AT&T and Westin Hotels and Resorts, as well as her interest in computers and technology. Its focus has evolved to include areas such as criminology. The scholarship also carries a connection to Huxtable’s own Hastings experience, particularly his love of music.
“I really enjoyed singing in the choir,” he said. “That was an hour every day that I loved participating in. You had to step up your game because the choir members were very talented.”
For Huxtable, whether he’s nurturing a career in real estate, a giant pumpkin or an endowed scholarship, the goal is much the same: to grow something worthwhile and leave something behind for others to enjoy.
“The scholarship will go on long after I’m gone,” he said. “I’m trying to get the scholarship built up to where it will be a really meaningful amount of support for a student. That’s my goal.”
By Judee Konen ’85