[at-l] Fw: [PATH] Goodbye Me. Thomas -founder of the Mt. Roger's Club--john boy
Carla & Dave Hicks
daveh at psknet.com
Fri May 25 21:10:37 CDT 2007
----- Original Message -----
From: <JHARTPENCE at CAROLINA.RR.COM>
To: "PATH" <path-list at path-at.org>
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 9:58 PM
Subject: [PATH] Goodbye Me. Thomas -founder of the Mt. Roger's Club--john boy
This was sent to us be Ed Clayton from the Mt. Roger's Club. Ed is usually at
Konnarock with us in march and April--john
Friday, May 25, 2007
Goodbye Mr. Thomas
The article below, titled "Goodbye Mr. Thomas," appeared as a column by Joe
Tennis in the Bristol Herald Courier on Thursday, May 24, 2007.
- + -
Monday night, the lights burned bright on the porch at the David O. Thomas
Activity Building.
And, there, I thought about how David Thomas must have paced this porch in
Washington County's Cleveland community.
But never again.
Earlier that day, Mr. Thomas died.
Here, last year, was the last place I had seen him alive. Here, too, this man
had once taught agriculture, from 1946 to 1954. His students loved him. Some,
in their 70s, told me how their teacher would act like one of the boys - and
play football with them in the field.
Those students, in 2006, honored Mr. Thomas by placing his name on a
gold-and-black plaque that now hangs outside the door at the Cleveland
Community Center - or what they call the "David O. Thomas Activity Building."
The retiree, at age 89, accepted the honor of having his name on that building
with mist in his eyes.
Earlier in 2004, I remember Mr. Thomas's smiling face as he approached me with
a handshake in Abingdon and told me he had been reading my articles for years.
That's when I first met him.
Yet, likewise, I had also admired his work - at the Thomas Knob Shelter, a
three-sided structure along the Appalachian Trail at Mount Rogers. The avid
hiker helped build that shelter, along with other volunteers. And, probably
with the same humility that he had in Cleveland, Mr. Thomas accepted the honor
of having his name placed on the Thomas Knob Shelter.
Another time, I visited Mr. Thomas and his wife Nerine, at their home near
Spring Creek. There, he told me the story of how his father had lost the
family's land when the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) flooded it to build
South Holston Lake in 1950.
Ironically, just a few days after the gates closed at South Holston Dam, Mr.
Thomas's father died from a series of strokes. Now it seems ironic that the
younger Thomas died as a celebration of the Appalachian Trail, in nearby
Damascus, faded last weekend.
Mr. Thomas loved that trail. He had worked for decades to maintain a protion
in what is now the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. Few at "Trail Days"
in Damascus may have known him. But it's a given thousands have stopped at his
shelter - just as I stopped, Monday night at the David O. Thomas Activity
Building.
I bid you fairwell sir.
Happy trails.
Posted by Ed Clayton at 8:34 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
David O. Thomas Obituary
ABINGDON - Mr. David O. Thomas, a resident of the Cleveland community of
Washington County, Va., passed away on Monday, May 21, 2007.
He was retired from Sperry-Unisys, where he worked in Human Resources. He was
a member of the Cleveland Presbyterian Church. Mr. Thomas will always be
remembered for his love of the outdoors and for his work on the Appalachian
Trail.
He is survived by his loving wife, Mrs. Nerine Bower Thomas of Abingdon; his
daughter, Mrs. Yolanda Thomas McQueen and husband Richard of Abingdon; and his
son, David George Thomas and wife Marilyn of Huntsville, Ala.
Graveside services for Mr. David O. Thomas will be conducted at 11 a.m. on
Thursday, May 24, 2007, in the Cleveland Presbyterian Church Cemetery, with
the Rev. Tom Musselman officiating. The family will receive friends from 6-8
p.m. at the Frost Funeral Home on Wednesday.
In lieu of flowers the family asks that contributions be made to the Cleveland
Presbyterian Church, c/o Mr. Robert Berry-Treasure, 18076 Cleveland Church
Road, Abingdon, VA 24211; or to the Cleveland Community Center, c/o Mr. Bobby
Smeltzer, 25247 Watauga Road, Abingdon, VA 24211, in memory of Mr. David
Thomas.
The family asks that friends meet at the cemetery on Thursday for the service.
Online Condolences can be submitted to the family at www.frostfuneralhome.com
Frost Funeral Home, 250 E. Main St., Abingdon, (276) 628-2131, is serving the
family of Mr. David O. Thomas.
Posted by Ed Clayton at 5:47 AM 0 comments
Monday, May 21, 2007
David O. Thomas 1917 - 2007
David Thomas passed away on May 21, 2007.
Here are a few photographs from his own collection.
Painting the privy at Hurricane Shelter. Labor Day 1994.
David and Nerine on Springer Mountain while attending Deep South 93.
David and Nerine on September 1, 2002 at the Multiclub Meeting at Hurricane
Campground.
Posted by Ed Clayton at 11:00 AM 0 comments
Founding of the Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club
David Thomas wrote this summary of the founding of the club.
In the 1950s, Louise Hall and her husband George lived next door to Nina B.
McQueen in Damascus. The trail passed in front of her home. Mrs. McQueen often
accommodated Appalachian Trail hikes by providing overnight lodging in her
home. Louise became interested in how she could become more active and helpful
with maintaining the trail, so she wrote the Appalachian Trail Conference
headquarters, then located in Washington, DC. About the same time David Thomas
wrote the Conference requesting information about the possibility of being
assigned a section of the Trail for a proposed trail maintaining club.
On March 16, 1959, George F. Blackburn, Conference Secretary, replied that our
request had been referred to Thomas H. Campbell, a member of the Roanoke
Appalachian Trail Club and a member of the ATC Board of Managers. On March 26,
1959 we received a letter from Mr. Campbell expressing his delight that we
were desirous of assuming a responsibility for maintenance of a section of the
Appalachian Trail. Mr. Campbell stated that the Roanoke AT Club had agreed to
turn over the section of trail from Virginia Route 16 on Glade Mountain
southward through Damascus to the VA-TN state line. The Roanoke Club shared
maintenance responsibility on this section with the Holston Ranger District of
the Jefferson National Forest, a stretch of more than 32 miles. Mr. Campbell
volunteered to arrange a meeting with our unorganized group in Southwest
Virginia and representatives of the Roanoke Club.
In the summer of 1959, members of the RATC make their semi-annual trip to Deep
Gap at Mount Rogers for a weekend campout. (They drove their cars to Deep Gap
from Route 600). Several interested future members joined them for a Sunday
afternoon to get acquainted and learn about the AT and invited representatives
of the RATC to join them for an oyster super at Cleveland School on Saturday,
November 28, 1959. On Saturday at 5 PM, Leigh Hawkins, Preston Leach, and
Robert Tabor arrived in Abingdon by train and were greeted by frigid weather
and falling snow. David Thomas met them at the Martha Washington Inn and
enjoyed a 30 minute confab before driving them to Cleveland School. After
supper, a growing number of newly dedicated trail folks enjoyed color slides
shown by Preston Leach and then spent more than an hour exchanging information
with these new friends from RATC. This was a first meeting. We scheduled
another one for Washington's Birthday weekend, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday,
February 20, 21, and 22, 1960, to include a Friendship Dinner at the Inn on
Saturday after a hike on Whitetop Mountain. We missed the 6:30 PM Friendship
Dinner and what we hoped would be an official organizational meeting of the
proposed Appalachian Trail maintaining club.
On Sunday afternoon, February 21, we met with the Roanoke folks to exchange
information and enjoy a slide show. Slides were shown by Bob Tabor, Doug
Patterson, Claude Grever and Preston Leach. A date to organize a club was set
for Monday, February 29. Attending the afternoon meeting were: Len Angle,
Claude Greever, George Hall, Louise Hall, Lugh Hawkins Blair Keller, Doug
Patterson, Bob Tabor, David Thomas, David G. Thomas, David Gibones and Harold
Wormer.
On the evening of February 29, 1960 the interested individuals met at the
Damascus Presbyterian Church and transacted the following business.
1.. Chose the name Mount Rogers AT Club.
2.. Agreed to petition the ATC and Jefferson NF for assignment of the 32
mile section from Highway 16 on Glade Mountain to the TN-VA line, and if
approved to endeavor to maintain and manage that section to the best of our
ability and as directed by ATC and FS.
3.. Elected
President - D. Thomas
VP - H Denton
Secretary-Treasurer - L. Hall
PR - C. Greever
Useful Links
a.. Appalachian Trail Conservancy
b.. Ed's Konnarock Web Pages
c.. Konnarock Crew Blog
d.. Mount Rogers AT Club Web Site
e.. Trail Days
f.. Trail Journals
g.. White Blaze
Friday, May 25, 2007
Goodbye Mr. Thomas
The article below, titled "Goodbye Mr. Thomas," appeared as a column by Joe
Tennis in the Bristol Herald Courier on Thursday, May 24, 2007.
- + -
Monday night, the lights burned bright on the porch at the David O. Thomas
Activity Building.
And, there, I thought about how David Thomas must have paced this porch in
Washington County's Cleveland community.
But never again.
Earlier that day, Mr. Thomas died.
Here, last year, was the last place I had seen him alive. Here, too, this man
had once taught agriculture, from 1946 to 1954. His students loved him. Some,
in their 70s, told me how their teacher would act like one of the boys - and
play football with them in the field.
Those students, in 2006, honored Mr. Thomas by placing his name on a
gold-and-black plaque that now hangs outside the door at the Cleveland
Community Center - or what they call the "David O. Thomas Activity Building."
The retiree, at age 89, accepted the honor of having his name on that building
with mist in his eyes.
Earlier in 2004, I remember Mr. Thomas's smiling face as he approached me with
a handshake in Abingdon and told me he had been reading my articles for years.
That's when I first met him.
Yet, likewise, I had also admired his work - at the Thomas Knob Shelter, a
three-sided structure along the Appalachian Trail at Mount Rogers. The avid
hiker helped build that shelter, along with other volunteers. And, probably
with the same humility that he had in Cleveland, Mr. Thomas accepted the honor
of having his name placed on the Thomas Knob Shelter.
Another time, I visited Mr. Thomas and his wife Nerine, at their home near
Spring Creek. There, he told me the story of how his father had lost the
family's land when the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) flooded it to build
South Holston Lake in 1950.
Ironically, just a few days after the gates closed at South Holston Dam, Mr.
Thomas's father died from a series of strokes. Now it seems ironic that the
younger Thomas died as a celebration of the Appalachian Trail, in nearby
Damascus, faded last weekend.
Mr. Thomas loved that trail. He had worked for decades to maintain a protion
in what is now the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. Few at "Trail Days"
in Damascus may have known him. But it's a given thousands have stopped at his
shelter - just as I stopped, Monday night at the David O. Thomas Activity
Building.
I bid you fairwell sir.
Happy trails.
Posted by Ed Clayton at 8:34 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
David O. Thomas Obituary
ABINGDON - Mr. David O. Thomas, a resident of the Cleveland community of
Washington County, Va., passed away on Monday, May 21, 2007.
He was retired from Sperry-Unisys, where he worked in Human Resources. He was
a member of the Cleveland Presbyterian Church. Mr. Thomas will always be
remembered for his love of the outdoors and for his work on the Appalachian
Trail.
He is survived by his loving wife, Mrs. Nerine Bower Thomas of Abingdon; his
daughter, Mrs. Yolanda Thomas McQueen and husband Richard of Abingdon; and his
son, David George Thomas and wife Marilyn of Huntsville, Ala.
Graveside services for Mr. David O. Thomas will be conducted at 11 a.m. on
Thursday, May 24, 2007, in the Cleveland Presbyterian Church Cemetery, with
the Rev. Tom Musselman officiating. The family will receive friends from 6-8
p.m. at the Frost Funeral Home on Wednesday.
In lieu of flowers the family asks that contributions be made to the Cleveland
Presbyterian Church, c/o Mr. Robert Berry-Treasure, 18076 Cleveland Church
Road, Abingdon, VA 24211; or to the Cleveland Community Center, c/o Mr. Bobby
Smeltzer, 25247 Watauga Road, Abingdon, VA 24211, in memory of Mr. David
Thomas.
The family asks that friends meet at the cemetery on Thursday for the service.
Online Condolences can be submitted to the family at www.frostfuneralhome.com
Frost Funeral Home, 250 E. Main St., Abingdon, (276) 628-2131, is serving the
family of Mr. David O. Thomas.
Posted by Ed Clayton at 5:47 AM 0 comments
Monday, May 21, 2007
David O. Thomas 1917 - 2007
David Thomas passed away on May 21, 2007.
Here are a few photographs from his own collection.
Painting the privy at Hurricane Shelter. Labor Day 1994.
David and Nerine on Springer Mountain while attending Deep South 93.
David and Nerine on September 1, 2002 at the Multiclub Meeting at Hurricane
Campground.
Posted by Ed Clayton at 11:00 AM 0 comments
Founding of the Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club
David Thomas wrote this summary of the founding of the club.
In the 1950s, Louise Hall and her husband George lived next door to Nina B.
McQueen in Damascus. The trail passed in front of her home. Mrs. McQueen often
accommodated Appalachian Trail hikes by providing overnight lodging in her
home. Louise became interested in how she could become more active and helpful
with maintaining the trail, so she wrote the Appalachian Trail Conference
headquarters, then located in Washington, DC. About the same time David Thomas
wrote the Conference requesting information about the possibility of being
assigned a section of the Trail for a proposed trail maintaining club.
On March 16, 1959, George F. Blackburn, Conference Secretary, replied that our
request had been referred to Thomas H. Campbell, a member of the Roanoke
Appalachian Trail Club and a member of the ATC Board of Managers. On March 26,
1959 we received a letter from Mr. Campbell expressing his delight that we
were desirous of assuming a responsibility for maintenance of a section of the
Appalachian Trail. Mr. Campbell stated that the Roanoke AT Club had agreed to
turn over the section of trail from Virginia Route 16 on Glade Mountain
southward through Damascus to the VA-TN state line. The Roanoke Club shared
maintenance responsibility on this section with the Holston Ranger District of
the Jefferson National Forest, a stretch of more than 32 miles. Mr. Campbell
volunteered to arrange a meeting with our unorganized group in Southwest
Virginia and representatives of the Roanoke Club.
In the summer of 1959, members of the RATC make their semi-annual trip to Deep
Gap at Mount Rogers for a weekend campout. (They drove their cars to Deep Gap
from Route 600). Several interested future members joined them for a Sunday
afternoon to get acquainted and learn about the AT and invited representatives
of the RATC to join them for an oyster super at Cleveland School on Saturday,
November 28, 1959. On Saturday at 5 PM, Leigh Hawkins, Preston Leach, and
Robert Tabor arrived in Abingdon by train and were greeted by frigid weather
and falling snow. David Thomas met them at the Martha Washington Inn and
enjoyed a 30 minute confab before driving them to Cleveland School. After
supper, a growing number of newly dedicated trail folks enjoyed color slides
shown by Preston Leach and then spent more than an hour exchanging information
with these new friends from RATC. This was a first meeting. We scheduled
another one for Washington's Birthday weekend, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday,
February 20, 21, and 22, 1960, to include a Friendship Dinner at the Inn on
Saturday after a hike on Whitetop Mountain. We missed the 6:30 PM Friendship
Dinner and what we hoped would be an official organizational meeting of the
proposed Appalachian Trail maintaining club.
On Sunday afternoon, February 21, we met with the Roanoke folks to exchange
information and enjoy a slide show. Slides were shown by Bob Tabor, Doug
Patterson, Claude Grever and Preston Leach. A date to organize a club was set
for Monday, February 29. Attending the afternoon meeting were: Len Angle,
Claude Greever, George Hall, Louise Hall, Lugh Hawkins Blair Keller, Doug
Patterson, Bob Tabor, David Thomas, David G. Thomas, David Gibones and Harold
Wormer.
On the evening of February 29, 1960 the interested individuals met at the
Damascus Presbyterian Church and transacted the following business.
1.. Chose the name Mount Rogers AT Club.
2.. Agreed to petition the ATC and Jefferson NF for assignment of the 32
mile section from Highway 16 on Glade Mountain to the TN-VA line, and if
approved to endeavor to maintain and manage that section to the best of our
ability and as directed by ATC and FS.
3.. Elected
President - D. Thomas
VP - H Denton
Secretary-Treasurer - L. Hall
PR - C. Greever
Set next meeting for March 21 in Damascus and scheduled a maintenance hike.
Posted by Ed Clayton at 9:58 AM 0 comments
Older Posts
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About This Blog
I hope that you find this useful. I will add photographs of people, shelters,
and the Trail, but most importantly, I will post tidbits about our club's
history. I hope that these tidbits will encourage you to contribute to a
written history of the club. If you leave comments, be aware that this is a
"moderated" blog and that comments are forwarded to me for posting. Ed Clayton
Useful Links
a.. Appalachian Trail Conservancy
b.. Ed's Konnarock Web Pages
c.. Konnarock Crew Blog
d.. Mount Rogers AT Club Web Site
e.. Trail Days
f.. Trail Journals
g.. White Blaze
Blog Archive
a.. ? 2007 (18)
a.. ? 05/20 - 05/27 (4)
a.. Goodbye Mr. Thomas
b.. David O. Thomas Obituary
c.. David O. Thomas 1917 - 2007
d.. Founding of the Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Clu...
a.. ? 05/13 - 05/20 (1)
a.. MRATC Feeds the Konnarock Crew
a.. ? 05/06 - 05/13 (3)
a.. Konnarock 2007 - Week 1 - Day 2
b.. Konnarock 2007 - Week 1
c.. A barefoot hike
a.. ? 04/29 - 05/06 (3)
a.. Trees Down near Rhododendron Gap
b.. Trail Magic
c.. Spring in the High Country
a.. ? 03/04 - 03/11 (7)
a.. 1970: Ed Garvey Anticipates Relocation
b.. Whitetop Festival
c.. Photographs from the Club Annual Meeting
d.. Crosscut Saw Training
e.. 1960: Founding of MRATC
f.. 1972: Trail Relocation from Iron Mountain
g.. Presentation at the MRATC annual meeeting
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