Retired barber cuts hair for donations

Tom Gorzycki closed his Minnesota barbershop 23 years ago, but he’s still cutting hair.

Gorzycki, 87, set up a makeshift salon in the basement of his senior living co-op five years ago. He offers free haircuts to residents on Tuesday mornings — with a catch: They are encouraged to contribute what they can to a cause that’s close to Gorzycki’s heart.

Article By Sydney Page, The Washington Post - July 27, 2022

“Whatever amount you want to put in the jar is fine by me,” he tells his clients, all of whom are male residents in his community, Applewood Pointe in Minnetonka, Minn.

All donations go to Arm in Arm in Africa — a Minnesota-based organization that Gorzycki and his wife, Mary, have volunteered with for several years. The nonprofit supports poor communities in South Africa by providing food, health care and educational opportunities.

In the five years that he’s been cutting hair free, Gorzycki has raised more than $10,000 for Arm in Arm in Africa.

“I’m gratified by what I do to feed my friends in South Africa,” he said.

Barbering has been Gorzycki’s life for seven decades. He learned how to cut hair when he joined the U.S. Navy in 1952. While on a Navy ship, Gorzycki started watching the barber on board do his job. He was intrigued.

“I would help, and through trial and error, I got pretty good at it,” said Gorzycki, who fought in the Korean War.

He soon became the ship’s barber, and he also ran the ship store, which sold toiletries, cigarettes and confections to military members.

After he left the service in 1956, Gorzycki enrolled in barber school in Minneapolis and subsequently opened a salon called Tom’s Barbershop. From then on, he was known as “Tom the barber.”

“I had my own shop for 36 years,” he said. “It was a neighborhood shop, so I got to know the people. We got to be friends.”

In many cases, he said, he gave kids their first haircut and then, 20 years later, he cut their hair on their wedding day. Watching his clients grow up was his favorite part of the job.

“I love reminiscing now,” Gorzycki said.

In his retirement, he and his wife focused on volunteer efforts to fill their time. Through their church, they learned about Arm in Arm in Africa — which operates in three different areas of South Africa — and they were eager to get involved.

“We hit the ground running,” Gorzycki said.

The couple visited South Africa twice with the organization — in 2012 and 2015 — for three-week volunteering stints in which they helped organize food distributions and other initiatives.

“We would go in there and greet them and spend time just being there with them,” Gorzycki said.

“We were just so impressed with the people, the friendliness, the acceptance,” he added. “We’re all family now.”

What struck Gorzycki most about the South Africans he met, he said, is that “they are the most generous with what little they have.”

More than once, he witnessed people sharing their allotment of food with others who needed it more.

“They are all poor, and yet they are willing to let go of it so somebody else can have it,” said Gorzycki, who said he also grew up in poverty.

His mother, he said, taught him to support others whenever possible.

“I never thought of it at the time, but it was my mother’s influence that instilled me with this capacity to reach out and give,” he said, adding that he also volunteers weekly at the local Veterans Affairs hospital — which he has been doing for nearly two decades. “She was very generous.”

Arm in Arm in Africa is grateful for Gorzycki’s continuous contributions — and touched by his unwavering commitment to the cause, said Pat Dawson, executive director of the organization.

“He has made a huge difference in our development,” Dawson said. “Tom’s personal giving goes far beyond his barbershop giving.”

“Tom is just such a remarkably humble and inspiring guy,” he continued. “He’s been incredibly generous and a model of the kind of person we’d love 10,000 of in our organization.”

Although he’s not traveling to South Africa any more, Gorzycki said he plans to continue supporting the cause he cares deeply about while doing what he loves: cutting hair, helping others and making friends in the process.

John Richards, 71, is a regular client at the basement barbershop, where Gorzycki has set up a chair, a mirror and a small station with his tools as well as a framed photo of South African children and a jar for donations. Richards comes in for a haircut every few weeks and always leaves a $20 bill.

“You get a great world-class haircut from a world-class barber, and you get to help feed people in Africa,” Richards said. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”

“It’s a very popular service,” he added. “Everyone knows his hours. Even people who do not need haircuts will go down there to socialize with everybody.”

Gorzycki offers haircuts every Tuesday between 10 and 11:30 a.m. The same residents routinely appear for a fresh cut, though some new ones trickle in from time to time.

As far as numbers go, “I’ve had anywhere from one to nine,” said Gorzycki, who has six children, four stepchildren, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren

He no longer cuts women’s hair, he explained, since it can be more complicated to trim and style.

“Senior men haircuts are easier, because a lot of us don’t have a lot of hair left,” he said with a laugh.

Gorzycki has no plans to halt his haircutting efforts. His basement barbershop, he said, keeps him busy and fulfilled.

“As long as I still have a steady hand, I’ll keep going,” Gorzycki said.