27
COM Outlook . Winter 2014
of the U.S. Armed Forces for bravery,
acts of merit, or meritorious service.
Fulfilling his two-year army obliga-
tion, Dr. Thomas transferred to Fort
Jackson, South Carolina, where he
served as commanding officer of the
outpatient troop clinics. He received
an honorable discharge from the U.S.
Army in 1973 but continued to serve as
the physician-in-charge of the emer-
gency room at the army’s Moncrief
Hospital and at Wallace Thompson
Hospital in Union City, South Carolina.
By the early 1970s, however, Dr.
Thomas sought a new challenge. “I
was tired of doing general and chest
surgery even though I really felt I was
good at it and people told me I was
good at it,” he said. Unfortunately,
the work didn’t offer the satisfaction it
had previously brought him.
It was a time for new consider-
ations, including the idea of starting
a family. He and his wife, Christina,
a former scrub nurse, would go on
to raise a hardworking family that
follows his example of helping others.
They have five children, including
two who followed the health care path
laid by their parents. One is a gradu-
ate of Des Moines University College
of Osteopathic Medicine, specializing
in pulmonology and critical care.
The other is our very own Jacqueline
Thomas, D.O., who is an assistant
professor of dermatology and a 2005
NSU-COM graduate. The couple also
raised twin grandsons who are cur-
rently in the U.S. Army and U.S. Coast
Guard, respectively.
A Study in
Career Diversification
Career-wise, ophthalmology was Dr.
Thomas’ next move. At the University
of South Florida College of Medicine
Department of Ophthalmology, he
pursued a residency from 1973 to 1976.
He would eventually practice full-time
in the disciplines of diseases and sur-
gery of the eye from 1976 to 1994.
Being a man of many talents, Dr.
Thomas wrote two novels in the early
1980s on drug smuggling in Florida,
both of which were published. He
also continued serving his commu-
nity as a volunteer police officer, in
uniform as well as in plain clothes.
Because of his ardent commitment to
law enforcement, Dr. Thomas com-
pleted his certification as a police
instructor, graduated in 1983 from
the Florida Police Academy Train-
ing Program at Sarasota Vocational
Technical Institute, and served as an
unpaid part-time police officer from
1981 through 1992.
His dedication to his community
continued throughout the 1980s.
Unhappy with the legislative repre-
sentation in Sarasota and Charlotte
counties, Dr. Thomas shifted his
focus to politics. “I felt I could do a
better job, so I ran in 1982 and lost
by the absentee ballots, but in 1984
I won. For a while, I had the record
for winning by the largest majority
in the Florida House of Representa-
tives,” he said.
It was while he was serving as a
Republican in the Florida Legislature
that he met a formidable ally in fellow
representative Dr. Fred Lippman,
chancellor of NSU’s Health Professions
Division. In contrast to the obstruction
displayed by today’s politicians, “Some
of our most enjoyable times were when
Dr. Lippman was the rules chairman
and I was the equivalent in the minori-
ty party,” said Dr. Thomas. “He moved
me up to the front to sit beside him so
we could work out issues without one
of us running the length of the cham-
ber. That participation and partnership
was unheard of and was a significant
and brave thing Dr. Lippman did. The
minority party is usually not invited,
but we got along very well and re-
spected one another very much.”
In the decade he served on the
Florida House of Representatives, Dr.
Thomas handled a range of legisla-
tion and served on many committees,
including the House Joint Conference
Committee, becoming one of the ma-
WIFE, CHRISTINA...CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION...DAUGHTER, JACQUELINE
