[at-l] Fw: [PATH] Goodbye Me. Thomas -founder of the Mt. Roger's Club--john boy
Linda Benschop
athummingbird at dnet.net
Sat May 26 10:26:37 CDT 2007
Did he have a Trail Name? John Boy?
Hummingbird
atrailhiker at adelphia.net wrote:
> Thank you for posting this.
>
> I will look for his name in that shelter and remember this story.
>
> I'd like to see a picture of him, I'll look around.
>
> Marsha
>
> ---- Carla & Dave Hicks <daveh at psknet.com> wrote:
>
>> ----- 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
>> Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
>> 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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