Thomas Lee Anderson Sr.

Thomas L. Anderson, 87, a long-time Dallas resident and businessman died Monday afternoon in a Dallas hospital after a lengthy illness. Funeral will be at 1 p.m. Friday, February 5, 2010, at the University Park United Methodist Church, 4024 Caruth Blvd. in Dallas with Rev. Larry Ravert and Rev. Leighton Bearden officiating. The entombment will be at Sparkman/Hillcrest Memorial Park and Mausoleum. A reception at Northwood Country Club will follow the entombment service. Visitation will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, February 4, 2010, at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home. "Tom" as he was known to all of his friends was born July 31, 1922 at Alto Pass, IL to Ruby Etta Brenneman and Edgar Lee Anderson. He graduated from University High School in Carbondale, IL in 1940 and immediately joined the Illinois National Guard's 33rd Infantry Division. He was selected for Officer's Candidate School where he graduated as a 2nd lieutenant. He was assigned to Camp Fannin near Gladewater, TX as a training officer and where he met his wife of 64 years, Dorothy Dell Dake of Gladewater, TX, who he married on November 1, 1945. After World War II he was assigned to the 88th Division's 350th Infantry Regiment and later to the 351st Infantry Regiment in Northern Italy where the U.S. Army kept Yugoslavia President Joseph Tito from recapturing parts of Yugoslavia ceded to Italy after World War I. He was one of the original 5,000 U.S. Army troops sent to an area known as the "Trieste Trust Unit" in the spring of 1947. He retired from the Army in 1948 and enrolled at SMU in 1950 and earned a Bachelor's of Business Administration degree in accounting in 1952. He was a practicing CPA in the Dallas area with the accounting firms of Peat Marwich, and Mitchell, and a partner in the CPA firms of Dranguet, Foote & Co and Dooley-Anderson and Co. In 1960 he acquired ownership of a small-privately owned telephone company in Dorchester, TX and continued to buy small, independently owned telephone companies over a six state area. He built Trans Continental Telephone and Electronics Co. into the eighth largest non AT&T independent telephone company in the United States with companies in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and New Mexico and more than 100,000 customers. He converted the telephone system in Lancaster, TX to direct distance dialing, with a special telephone call to then TX Governor John Connally in the early 1960s. He formed Anderson Industries in 1968 which was a group of manufacturing companies in Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah and served as president and chief executive officer until 1994. His civic endeavors were varied: serving as the first president of the David G. Burnet Elementary School Dad's Club in 1955, president of the Town North Optimist Club, president of the SMU Mustang Club, president of the Retina Foundation of the Southwest which he helped found. "Tom" also served as the chairman of the Linz Award selection committee in the 1970s. He also was on the board of the Ruidoso (NM) Downs Jockey Club, the Gladewater (TX) Round Up Rodeo Association and the United States Independent Telephone Association. Survivors include his wife of 64 years, Dorothy; two sons Tom Anderson, Jr. of Colleyville and Charles Anderson of Dallas; a brother Gene Anderson of Thousand Oaks, CA; two grandsons Trey Anderson of Argyle and John Anderson of Colleyville; and three great-grandchildren, Paul, Emily, and Ryan Anderson, all of Argyle, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his sister, Mary Ellen Christensen and a brother C.J. Anderson, who was killed during World War II. Pallbearers will include: Charles Modisette, Jackie Wood, A.D. Martin, Jr., Gene Bishop, John Eubanks, retired Lt. Col James R. Cain, Jr., Dr. David Burch, Bob Miller, John Christensen, and Dr. Michael Highbaugh. The family has designated the Retina Foundation of the Southwest or University Park United Methodist Church for expressions of sympathy.