David George Thomas

On Monday, February 29th, 2016, the world lost a very special person, David George Thomas. He died peacefully, surrounded by his daughters, Megan Thomas Wallace and Cie Thomas Meyer, and his son-in-law, Chet Wallace. In remembering him as a father, grandfather, husband, brother, and friend, three characteristics stand out the most. First, his kind and generous nature was evident in so many aspects of his life. Whether it was driving a wheelchair-bound man to church every Sunday, or going to our Pastor Hal Elvert's house to read to him when he was dying and could no longer read. As one of the managers at Rite-Aid, he helped an elderly woman do her regular shopping by having her call him from the parking lot with her list and bringing the items out to her car. When she got to where she could no longer drive, he started delivering the items to her at her home, until upper management at Rite-Aid said he could no longer do that. My Dad's extraordinary wealth of knowledge of pretty much everything is the next characteristic that comes to mind. While he certainly had some favorite topics - World War II, the Black Seminoles, NASA to name a few – it seemed impossible to tell him something he didn't already know. However, I did recently call him to tell him about a book I read called ""Saving the World"" by Julia Alvarez. When I asked him what he knew about the expedition to vaccinate people from Small Pox using the live virus carried by orphans, he had never heard of it! I said to him, ""Dad! Do you mean I've finally found something you don't know about?"" And wherever he was lacking in information, he was relentless in his research to find out more. Cie and I have fond memories of him ""helping"" with school projects by providing us with way more information than we needed. My project on the weather conditions endured by Alexander the Great and Cie's 5th grade report on the Voyager are remembered as the best examples of his eagerness to help. We still have the cassette of the sounds of Earth that were recorded on Voyager that he obtained by calling NASA. He also contacted none other than Carl Sagan to help Cie. Perhaps his largest research project was the book that he wrote, ""Seeing the Elephant."" This book is the culmination of over twenty years of research that he did on an attack on a wagon train by a group of Mormons who thought they were the Militia, referred to as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Cie and I can recall him working on our Word Processor when we were in high school. He finally finished the book and had it published a couple years ago. Finally, my Dad was so incredibly loving towards us and to his grandchildren. We have never doubted for one second how much he loved us. He was so involved with everything we did. He volunteered for everything where a parent was needed- driving to a youth group camp in Montana, driving me and a group of friends skiing every weekend, taking me and my college roommate to get a carpet remnant for our freshman dorm. Simply put, he was always there. As Cie says, ""Remember how we were always the first to be picked up at slumber parties? He'd always come 10 minutes early!!"" During my freshman year at CU, my mom had to put a stop to him driving up to Boulder with simply a six pack of Diet Coke for me. She had to remind him that I was in college and needed to gain independence. His love for his grandchildren was immense as well. I'll always remember him bringing me lunch and sitting with me when I first brought each of my boys home. He loved to receive texts and pictures with updates on their activities. And he loved to search for the perfect gift for them. This past year he bought my son Thomas (12) a gift card to try indoor skydiving. Thomas had the biggest smile on his face the entire day. And he was my copilot on drives to so many soccer games. This Christmas he got my boys a microscope, and I'll always think about him sitting at the kitchen table with the boys showing them how to use it. Of course his biggest love was my Mom, Pamela L. Thomas. Words can't even express how much he loved her. She was his entire world. He was her champion in all things that she pursued. And he defended her fiercely against whatever conflict arose with us or with her students. There was nothing he wouldn't do for her. The fact that now he is with her is what comforts us the most. I will miss calling him and talking about current events, asking him to explain baseball while we watched Thomas play, telling him about the boys' days, texting him pictures of our adventures, bringing lunch to him and watching CNN news, and just his presence and the comforting reminder of his love. He was a wonderful father to us, and if I provide even a fraction of the amount of love, comfort, and security to my children, I will be proud to call myself his daughter. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Escuela de Guadalupe in his name. http://www.escuelaguadalupe.org/ Please share memories of David and condolence messages with his family below.