MILLICAN: ‘Dr. Don’ cast a long shadow

Published 10:30 am Tuesday, July 23, 2024

More than 40 years ago, I remember Dr. Don Thomas speaking at a meeting of the Carpet Capital Running Club in Dalton. An avid runner himself along with his wife, Emma Jean, he was not only sharing health and fitness tips but also intimated he’d made some big changes in his life. It intrigued me, because I needed to make some changes as well.

When my friend and family doctor died last week, I began to learn more about Don while doing research for a story memorializing him. His son, John, told me he’d had a heart attack around age 35. Another son, Ondray, wrote to me that his father “rededicated his life to Christ in the mid-’70s when I was in high school.”

I believe that was the change he was talking about four decades ago. It certainly explains the heart and passion he had for helping others, not only as a physician but as an effective state legislator. Don Thomas had the love of God in his heart for others, and worked with the determination of a bulldog to make changes he saw needed to be made on the state level.

However, his son John — one of eight children — shared it was not a heart attack but a frightful trip in a small plane on the way back from a Georgia-Tennessee football game that made his father think of his eternal destination.

“That flight in bad weather made him think ‘This could be it for me,’” he said. “Soon thereafter he got hooked up with (local spiritual leader) Doug Jensen and Doug really mentored Dad in his walk of faith.”

Don served on the Board of Education in the 1970s when Whitfield County high schools went through consolidation — Eastbrook and Valley Point became Southeast, and West Side and North Whitfield became Northwest. A friend who served on that board, Blue Ridge realtor Steven Cockburn, told me Don was his “mentor, physician and friend.”

“I loved Don and learned a lot about management and life in general from him,” he said. “We didn’t start a board meeting or anything without prayer, and Don led it. When my father died at the (Dalton) hospital, he and I were downstairs there having lunch in the cafeteria when Don’s beeper went off. We went upstairs and Don shared the verse with me about our lives being like a vapor that vanishes (James 4:14).”

When his friend, Whitfield County Schools Superintendent D.O. Chumley, made known the disparity of funding between city and county schools — not just in Dalton and Whitfield County but throughout the state — the Whitfield system filed suit against the education establishment in Georgia with Thomas leading the charge. Chumley, a genius when it came to school finances, testified, and the suit was won.

There was even more ahead in the headlights of Don Thomas. As a state senator, he worked tirelessly to get smoking banned in most Georgia restaurants and seat belts mandated in pickup trucks. When Teresa and I were returning from Alabama after visiting family years ago, we stopped at a steakhouse in Scottsboro. We were about halfway through our meal when a couple of people two tables away fired up cigarettes. Having been used to eating out without stinky cigarette smoke, we were of course mortified — and promptly lost our appetite. (Alabama eventually enacted its own “clean air in public places” law, as have several other states — thanks to Dr. Thomas.)

Don told me one time he pursued the ban on smoking and requiring seat belts in trucks because “it saves lives.” As John pointed out, his father was also concerned about the spiritual lives of his patients, often witnessing to them. How did that start? It started at home, with a commitment by him and Emma Jean to spiritually nourish their large family.

“Mom and Dad would have family devotion time often,” Ondray recalled. “I remember one of Dad’s favorite sayings was ‘Your lifetime is like a snap of your finger compared to eternity.’”

A daughter, Mary Faucett, said she and her brothers and sisters were “truly blessed with a dad that committed himself wholeheartedly to raising us in a Christian home.”

“The way he loved and respected our dear, kind mom made for a secure and nurturing home life,” she said, adding that the siblings’ young friends also sat in during devotional time and heard a blessing over shared meals. “My parents were the most selfless, patient, compassionate and generous people I have ever known. Once we rented a Winnebago and traveled to Colorado. We picked up a hitchhiker on the way. Dad witnessed to him and gave him refreshments.”

Granddaughter Emily Wills shared, “I’m not sure anything has shaped my life of faith more than watching my grandparents. Their consistency and faithfulness reflected what I believe my grandparents lived — as (author) Eugene Peterson would say, ‘A long obedience in the same direction.’ No one ever told me to do the same, but they modeled for me that the life of a Christian is shaped and grown and deepened in the everyday — early Bible reading for us, and sharing off-brand cereal together!”

So how did Don Thomas do it all — help engineer equitable state funding for Georgia schools, heal a never-ending stream of thousands of patients, save lives by shepherding compassionate legislation and raise a family of eight children? And too, he gained the admiration and respect of legislators around the state.

On his last day under the Gold Dome, I had the honor of tagging along with him as a staff writer for the Dalton Daily Citizen into the Senate and House chambers where he was recognized for his service. Then another honor was bequeathed by Gov. Sonny Perdue. I was amazed that under the ornate rotunda and everywhere we walked, legislator after legislator from each side of the aisle shook his hand or hugged him in appreciation of his friendship and genuine collegiality.

One might say he had the perfect partner — both at home, and up above. When I think of him, Philippians 2:3-4 comes to mind, “Do nothing out of ambition or selfish conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

That was Don Thomas. Though a small man in stature, he cast a long shadow of influence, impact — and hope in a better future for all of us.

Mark Millican is a former staff writer for the Dalton Daily Citizen.