Dean Clark Thomas

Dean Clark Thomas was a resident of Nashville, Tennessee, having moved from Huntsville, Alabama several years ago. He passed away August 26, 2021, at the age of 85. He was born December 1, 1935, in Chicago, Illinois. Dean was a Christian who for many years attended the United Methodist Church.

Dean received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from the Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University.

Before starting his career, Dean proudly served the country in the army during the Korean War, where he got his first experience launching missiles. In the service, he met the love of his life, Alice Eugenia Thomas (“Genie”) while stationed at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.

After attending classes at the University of Illinois, Dean began his career as a “computer engineer,” a term that at that time had yet to be coined. He worked so early in the computer science field that the vast majority of his education was learned on the job. Although he received a Computer Science Degree late in his career, he had already taught the subject matter of many of the classes he later attended at the university.

He was a “rocket scientist,” as he applied computer engineering to numerous projects associated with the space program during its heyday. Much of his career involved working with Spacehab, an orbiting laboratory that traveled within the space shuttle.

Outside his career, he was a devoted husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. Dean was the consummate handyman or “jack of all trades,” who never hired a repair man. He baked, sewed, repaired automobiles, and was an artist that drew, painted and made stained glass. He enjoyed bridge, chess and all types of card games. He loved table tennis and played whenever and wherever he could find a game. In his later years, he made Brookdale Green Hills Cumberland his home. To those that got to know him, Dean was the everyman “Clark” Kent on the outside, but with superman strength on the inside.

He was preceded in death by his wife Genie of 45 years, and is survived by his sister, Roberta Null, son, Glenn Scott Thomas, daughter-in-law, Julianne Bowling Thomas, his two granddaughters Sara Anne Thomas Quinn (John Stephen Quinn) and Natalie Glenn Thomas (Robert George Lang), as well as, his two great-grandchildren Cecilia Anne Quinn and John Silas Quinn.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Dean’s honor be made to the Sunny Day Club, a respite program for caregivers of dementia victims at Brentwood United Methodist Church in Brentwood, Tennessee, or the American Cancer society.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.Brentwood-Roesch-PattonFuneralHome.com for the Thomas family.