Thomas Dunaway Anderson

THOMAS DUNAWAY ANDERSON, , the fifth son of Burdine Clayton Anderson and Frank Ervin Anderson, was born March 9, 1912, in Oklahoma City, and died June 14, 2007 in Houston. He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Helen Sharp Anderson. Mr. Anderson received his early education in the Oklahoma City public schools before moving to Houston with his family in 1928. He attended Woodberry Forest School and Rice Institute before entering the Washington & Lee Law School in 1931, graduating LL.B. (J.D.) in 1934. While in law school, he was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1933 and to the Texas Bar in 1934, at which point he became associated with the law firm of Andrews & Kurth. In 1938, he married the former Helen Louise Sharp of Austin. There followed a long career in law, the U. S. Navy (retiring as Commander, USNR), banking and presidency of Texas Fund Management Co., which managed Texas Fund, the state's first publicly held mutual fund, organized in 1949. He re-entered the practice of law in 1965 and retired in 1993, sixty years after receipt of his first license to practice law. In over a half-century, Mr. Anderson was active in several organizations devoted to the arts, health care, the Episcopal Church, higher education, and preservation in the Houston area, including the chairmanship of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston Grand Opera, and Bayou Bend Advisory Committee of MFAH, of which he was first chairman. In the field of health, he was chairman and life member of the Board of Visitors of U. T. - M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, beginning in 1962. For 29 years he was chairman of Kelsey-Seybold Foundation (now Kelsey Research Foundation) and was vice president and a managing director of the Retina Research Foundation. Mr. Anderson served for many years as president and member of the Protestant Episcopal Church Council of the Diocese of Texas ("Church Corporation") and was senior warden of St. John the Divine Episcopal Church and Christ Church Cathedral. He served two terms as a trustee of Washington and Lee University before becoming trustee emeritus, and was a board member of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, in Austin, and Lambuth College in Jackson, Tennessee, which awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1967. He was chairman of the Arts and Sciences Foundation of the University of Texas prior to its partition into three foundations. Mr. Anderson was long active in the field of historic preservation, serving as chairman of the Winedale Advisory Committee of the University of Texas - Austin, and Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park Association, in old Washington, Texas. A long-time member of the Harris County Historical Commission, he participated in the dedication of many historic markers, including medallions for the Anderson Clayton Building (formerly the Cotton Exchange Building); the offices of Anderson Clayton & Co.; University of Texas - M. D. Anderson Hospital, named for his uncle, Monroe Dunaway Anderson; the Clayton Genealogical Library, named for his uncle Will Clayton; and plaques for his own Houston residence and his 1855 historic home in Washington County, Texas. He was treasurer and trustee of the San Jacinto Museum of History and first chairman of George Washington's "Life Guard" at Mount Vernon, Virginia. Mr. Anderson was also a trustee of the English-Speaking Union of the U. S. in New York, after serving as president of the local chapter. He was briefly a trustee of the Episcopal Church Foundation in New York. He was a co-founder and long-time treasurer of Bayou Bend Gardens Endowment and was an honorary member of River Oaks Garden Club, sponsor of the Azalea Trail, which exhibited his Tall Timbers home eight times, beginning in the 1960's. In 1988, Mr. Anderson became the first recipient of the Leon Jaworski Award for community service, given by the Women's Auxiliary of the Houston Bar Association. The mayor and city council of Houston unanimously declared April 6, 1988, as "Thomas D. Anderson Day." In 1995, he received the "Caring Spirit" tribute awarded by the Institute of Religion; and in 1997, he and his wife were co-recipients of the Ima Hogg Achievement Award for Historic Achievement, given by the history department of the University of Texas - Austin. He was also a member of several patriotic organizations, including the Paul Carrington Chapter of Sons of the American Revolution; U. S. Naval Institute; U. S. Navy League; Naval War College Foundation; and "NIPS", (Association of former Naval Intelligence Officers). Mr. Anderson was a member of the State Bar of Texas, Houston Bar Association, and Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Delta Phi, and Sigma Chi fraternities, and several social clubs. A talented musician, he made music from childhood, singing in glee clubs and church choirs, acquiring expertise in reed instruments, and graduating to organ and piano in his later years. He and his wife shared an interest in preservation, and both were active in Bayou Bend, in Winedale, and in restoring the 1855 "Hunt Hardy House" in Washington County, the subject of the Ima Hogg Award, their weekend home for 25 years. His death on June 14th followed a long battle with cancer and heart disease. His family wishes to extend thanks for the kind attentions of Betty Mae Sam, Bessie Mae Seals, Barbara Boyd, and Jerry Casner during his final months of life. In addition to his wife, Mr. Anderson is survived by his daughters, Helen Anderson Shaw and her husband, John Arthur Shaw of Chevy Chase, MD; Lucille Anderson Streeter and her husband, Richard Henry Streeter of Washington, D. C.; by his son, Judge John Sharp Anderson and his wife, Holly Teas Anderson of Houston; by four grandchildren, Thomas Clayton Anderson Streeter, John James Clayton Anderson, Alexis Dunaway Anderson and Bryan Sharp Anderson; by his brother, Benjamin Monroe Anderson; and by numerous nieces and nephews. Friends and family are invited to call at the family residence from four o'clock in the afternoon until six o'clock in the evening on Sunday, the 17th of June. Following a private burial service, a memorial service will be held at five o'clock in the afternoon on Monday, the 18th of June, at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, 2450 River Oaks Boulevard with The Rev. Douglas W. Richnow officiating. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the University of Texas - M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, P.O. Box 4486, Houston, TX 77210.