{"id":2305,"date":"2021-11-23T12:28:39","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T16:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/?p=2305"},"modified":"2022-04-26T16:22:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T20:22:46","slug":"richard-fess-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/richard-fess-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard ‘Fess’ Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Richard H. Thomas<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Richard H. Thomas was a popular\u00a0educator who\u00a0taught in Princess Anne for nearly four decades. His legion of\u00a0alumni-admirers\u00a0affectionately called him\u00a0\u201cFess” — short for professor and a term of endearment students of that era\u00a0used\u00a0sparingly as a sign of respect.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf anyone ever epitomized the term \u2018gentleman,\u2019 it would be he,\u201d 1978 alum Horatio William Jones III said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was one of the greatest men I have ever met in my life,\u201d recalled Col. Ralph Hodge, USAF (retired), class of 1958. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas always wore a tie and a white shirt to class, and addressed his students as \u201cMr.\u201d or \u201cMiss\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Perfect gentleman,” said Charles Laws, class of 1959. “Knew every student by name. Tipped his hat to all (the) female
students.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During sporting events, however, Thomas\u2019 formality was replaced by loud cheering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPresident (John T.) Williams and Mr. Thomas were always out-yelling one another!\u201d said Jones, laughing.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his 38-year tenure (1939-77), Thomas witnessed the institution’s name\u00a0transition from Princess Anne College to\u00a0Maryland State College and finally to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He was an industrial arts instructor and served as\u00a0head of the department of Industrial and Mechanic Arts from 1966 until 1971.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas earned his undergraduate degree from Cheyney (Pa.) State University and a Master of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University. He continued his studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and at several technical schools. He was a member of the Phi Alpha chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity, where he was past basilicus<\/em>, and a member of several industrial arts and other professional organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to teaching, Thomas worked as the college’s athletics director (1946-48), and served as a member of the college’s athletics and homecoming committees.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was a real \u2018booster\u2019 for athletics,\u201d Jones said.\u00a0 Well-known and highly respected as a recruiter, he is credited with bringing to campus student-athletes Sylvester Polk, Cal Martin, Albert Jones, Joe Raikes, Rob Merritt, Ted Adams, Ernest Ramsay, Billy Johnson and John McDaniels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 1978, I visited with Mr. and Mrs. Thomas at their home,” Hodge said. \u201cThat day, Mr. Thomas happily reminded me about my long, game-winning home run against North Carolina A&T on May 7, 1955.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each fall, Thomas reveled in the ritual of (football) game preparations. He strategized with the coaches (\u201cRooster\u201d Coffee, \u201cSkip\u201d McCain, Earl Banks, and \u201cNate\u201d Taylor) and encouraged the football players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As homecoming approached, everyone knew where to find him: ensconced in the \u201cmaelstrom\u201d of float decorating, bonfires, prep rallies and coronations. For Thomas, homecoming was the quintessential moment, and the \u201cHawks\u201d the quintessential team! He was elected to the university’s athletics hall of fame in 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
(L-R) Richard Thomas, Worthington Waters, T. Waldo Kiah
Gaston Finney & Sheridan Parks<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Jones remembers how Thomas and professor Theodore \u201cBox\u201d Briggs skillfully repaired broken \u201cLouisville Slugger\u201d bats for the enjoyment of Black students who attended the old Somerset Junior-Senior High School \u2013 now Kiah Hall on the UMES campus. \u201cThere was nothing better for us than playing with those bats!\u201d said Jones, known to many as Bill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cPolishing the Diamond<\/em>,\u201d a history of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore by William P. Hytche, Thomas is pictured gleefully smiling with faculty colleagues while performing\u00a0a Rockettes-style kick line\u00a0during a campus talent show. He was so well-regarded\u00a0the university’s\u00a0arts and technologies center is named in honor of Thomas and his colleague, Briggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Married to Claudia, who was often called an \u201chonorary cheerleader\u201d and staunch Hawk supporter, they had three children, Calvin, Diane and Grace.\u00a0 Grace remembers UMES fondly.\u00a0\u201cMy dad loved working at UMES, and the campus was my playing field,\u201d\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 15, 1977, the university awarded him the honorary title of “faculty emeritus” during commencement exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His dedication to UMES lives on through a scholarship endowment fund he and Claudia established in 1992.  The Richard H. Thomas Scholarship Fund is earmarked to help students in the technology department. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

According to his published obituary, Thomas was 80 when he died April 8, 1995 at his home near campus in Princess Anne. His funeral was held at the Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts on campus. He is interred at Springhill Memory Gardens near Hebron, Md<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard H. Thomas was a popular\u00a0educator who\u00a0taught in Princess Anne for nearly four decades. His legion of\u00a0alumni-admirers\u00a0affectionately called him\u00a0\u201cFess” — short for professor and a term of endearment students of that era\u00a0used\u00a0sparingly as a sign of respect.\u00a0 \u201cIf anyone ever epitomized the term \u2018gentleman,\u2019 it would be he,\u201d 1978 alum Horatio William Jones III said. …Read more Richard ‘Fess’ Thomas<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-2305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2305"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=2305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}