Alan Eugene Thomas

Alan E. Thomas, 90, died peacefully at home Thanksgiving night. Alan was honored by his peers as a 16-year-old in the North Fulton high school yearbook as "Most Gentlemanly,” and he lived his life exemplifying that, putting others first and service above self. He learned early the value of hard work, delivering the old Atlanta Georgian newspaper on his paper route in Peachtree Hills and bagging groceries at the Buckhead Piggly Wiggly. At 16 he entered Georgia Tech but interrupted his schooling to enlist in the Army Air Force during World War II. Returning from the service, he went back to Georgia Tech to earn his degree in Industrial Engineering. A member of the honor society Phi Eta Sigma and Tau Beta Pi, he was one of nine co-founders of Alpha Pi Mu, the national honor society for Industrial Engineering students. A member of Sigma Chi fraternity, he graduated from Tech in 1949 and joined Southern Bell for a forty-year career ending as executive vice president of PR/Public Affairs/Regulatory and serving on the Southern Bell Board. Along the way he became a Sloan Fellow and earned his master’s at MIT, ran the United Way campaign in Charlotte, North Carolina, and served on the board of First Union Bank and the National Exchange Carriers Association. In 1966 he married Diane Klyce from Sardis, Mississippi, and they had two sons. Self-taught in both golf and piano, Alan excelled at both. He loved the gentle slopes of Capital City Club, where he was a lifetime member. He had a special passion for his dogs, vanilla ice cream, Coca-Cola, mowing his pastures, and The Fabulous Fox Theatre, where he served as president and chairman of Atlanta Landmarks for two decades. His love for animals never shined brighter than when Alan and Diane hosted the German equestrian team at their farm during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. From the age of seven, Alan was a member of the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta and in recent years a communicant at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Newnan, where he and his wife lived in retirement on the farm that "owned them.” Alan was preceded in death by his parents John and Bertha Thomas, his dynamic twin, Carol Thomas Shipp and his beloved brother, John Boyd Thomas Jr. He is survived by his wife of 50 plus years, Diane, and their sons, Alan Eugene Thomas Jr. (Anne) of Hoby, England, and Stephen Klyce Thomas (Maureen) of Atlanta, Ga., his sister-in-law, Mildred Thomas, his nephew John B. Thomas III, his niece Carol Vikki Thomas and his 5 grandchildren, Sam, Lucy, Ella, Rowan and Klyce, who could always depend on Big A/Grandaddy for an ice cream cone. The graveside service is Tuesday, November 29, 2016 at 2 p.m. at Westview Cemetery, 1680 Westview Drive SW, Atlanta, GA 30310. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Fox Theatre Institute, 660 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30308 or to the charity of your choice. McKoon Funeral Home & Crematory 770-253-4580

Alan Eugene Thomas

March 4, 1926 - November 24, 2016