NEIL THOMAS ’62 PROFILE

I CAN STILL NAME EVERY TEACHER I HAD WHEN I WAS AT BAYLOR...AN INVESTMENT IN HIGH SCHOOL IS A GOOD ONE, AND I’M INDEBTED TO BAYLOR FOR THE EDUCATION I RECEIVED.”

NEIL THOMAS ’62

ALUMNI PARENT BAYLOR FUND DONOR CLASS AGENT REUNION COORDINATOR GREAT WORK! SOCIETY CHAIRMAN PAST PRESIDENT OF ALUMNI COUNCIL FORMER TRUSTEE Neil Thomas ’62 is not one to walk away from the things he loves. In 2017, he announced his resignation after 20 years of ruling Tennessee’s Eleventh Circuit Court but made it clear that he would still practice law. In 1962, he graduated from Baylor and for 60 years has made it clear that he still loves the school.

His involvement in the life of Baylor has remained extensive – class agent, reunion coordinator, Great Work! Society, capital campaigns, father of four Baylor alums, and President of the Alumni Council, which includes a term on the Board of Trustees.

That involvement also includes regular donations to The Baylor Fund. “If alums don’t keep giving annually, the tuition at Baylor will have to increase, and we will lose a very important group of students,” he says. “We have to have everybody. I always encourage 100% of my classmates to give a gift of any size. It keeps the class together, and sustaining the school doesn’t fall on just a few people.”

Thomas says his personal connection to Baylor keeps him involved. “I can still name every teacher I had when I was at Baylor,” Thomas says. “I bet I can’t name two professors I had at the University of North Carolina. You get your foundation in high school. An investment in high school is a good one, and I’m indebted to Baylor for the education I received. I feel no such debt to my law school – I propelled myself from there. North Carolina gave me a good solid education to get me to law school. But Baylor started everything.”