Tom was a native Houstonian, born on the 18th of July 1929. He was a graduate of Lamar High School, Rice University, and Baylor College of Medicine, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. After graduating from medical school, he did his internship and residency in pediatrics at the University of Michigan. He served as a captain in the Army as a medical doctor and was stationed in Tacoma, Washington and Los Angeles, California, where he did a fellowship in pediatric hematology. He returned to Houston to continue in hematology and worked in pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital. He eventually went into private pediatric practice until his retirement. He was respected and loved by his patients.
Tom was an active member of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and later Chapelwood United Methodist Church. For several years he served on the zoning board for Piney Point Village.
Tom was preceded in death by his wife, Helen McAnelly Adkins; his parents, Alvin B. Adkins; and Caroline Rehfuss Adkins. He is survived by his second wife, Maribel McCleary Adkins; his daughter, Mary Adkins Barrett and her husband John, his sons, John Thomas Adkins and his wife Debra, and Robert Stanley Adkins and his wife Sherry; and six grandchildren, John Barrett, Andrew Barrett, Tyler Adkins, Kristen Adkins, Thomas Adkins, and David Adkins.
Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o’clock in the afternoon until eight o’clock in the evening on Friday, the 4th of April, in the library and grand foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.
A memorial service is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Saturday, the 5th of April, at Chapelwood United Methodist Church, 11140 Greenbay Street in Houston, where the Rev. Dr. Scott Endress, Pastor of Reaching and Senior Adult Ministries, is to officiate.
Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception in the nearby Fellowship Hall.
Prior to the service, the family will have gathered for a private interment at Forest Park Westheimer Cemetery in Houston.
In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that memorial gifts be directed to the Chapelwood Foundation, 11140 Greenbay St., Houston, TX, 77024.
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