Leroy Thomas embodied service above self

My first memory of Leroy Thomas was as a youngster in Vacation Bible School.

He was a tall, gangly man with glasses and a large Adam’s Apple. He looked kinda funny as he attempted to teach grade-school kids just released from school for the summer how to sing the old VBS classic “Booster, Booster be a Booster.”

I know he used emphatic fist pumps to emphasis the word “booster” and I’m pretty sure there was some poultry imitation going on when we got to the “grouchy as a rooster” lyric.

Leroy Thomas, who died last Sunday at age 89, was guilty as charged for being a booster but I never saw the man grouchy as a rooster.

Leroy was guilty of boosting his adopted hometown of Portales where business was concerned. Coming to town as a Fuller Brush salesman had to have been a daunting task in Portales in the late 1950s. Leroy and his lovely wife Gaynelle later became the proud owners of The Print Shop when Fred Plexico decided to retire. When Leroy jumped into that endeavor he jumped in with both feet and the entire family, just like anything he ever did.

The Print Shop was a good business when they bought it in the early ’70s and Leroy’s sales talents made it even better. The chore of selling advertising into the weekly TV Views or the annual Roosevelt County Fair Book were the things he liked best because he liked people and getting to know them.

While VBS was my earliest memory of Leroy, the image that is etched in my mind was from March 1978 as the whole Portales downtown was threatened by fire and The Print Shop was directly in its path.

Working downtown in the Portales News-Tribune pressroom, my afternoon of work had been interrupted by the lack of power.

Soon I found myself pressed into action helping to evacuate the U.S. Mail from the post office.

As we loaded mail onto trucks from the mail loading dock I could look across the street and clearly see Leroy in his print shop apron atop his building trying in vain to keep his business from burning. But it was a total loss.

Soon he had located a new building they could afford on East Third Street and The Print Shop lived to fight another day as a truly family owned and operated business. There was just no quit in Leroy Thomas.

Leroy and Gaynelle have been active members of the Chamber of Commerce and both were members of Chamber Ambassadors and received numerous awards over the years for their service. Again it was all about the people.

Leroy boosted the Portales Rotary Club as he attained the unimaginable 52 years of perfect attendance. He also used his sales skills in the club by selling more pork chop dinner tickets than the rest of the club combined. He saw an untapped market in the pork chop business and convinced the club to do deliveries. It worked too.

I have enjoyed Rotary 40 years myself, not 40 years of perfect attendance, but I attended weekly because I knew good people like Leroy Thomas would be there for conversation and fellowship. The programs aren’t bad either and one of the best personal story programs ever was hearing Leroy tell about how he succeeded at the Fuller Brush game.

The man more than embodied Rotary’s motto — “Service Above Self.”

Leroy’s other and even more important calling in life was as a preacher. For over 47 years Leroy, with Gaynelle along for the Sunday drive, traveled to Causey where he preached at the Causey Church of Christ. It was a job he gave up reluctantly in 2018 for health reasons.

He has been a mentor and role model for me as long as I can remember. He’s been my booster and volunteer when I’ve needed it most, always with an understanding word of encouragement and never a sour word across his tongue. I’m going to miss his company a lot.

May your ink set be quick and your pressruns long my friend.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]