Thomas Felton Camp, Jr.

{Note: To see Tom's great poems, please click on the “Mementos” tab}

Thomas Felton Camp, Jr.

The early years. Thomas Felton Camp was born in Childress, Texas in 1930 to Opal Fox, a schoolteacher from Childress and Thomas Felton Camp, Sr., from Rockdale (Milan County). His parents were divorced when he was young and his mother soon remarried Joe Page, an electrician, who became his step-dad. His uncle Grover Fox started the Fox Clinic in Childress, which is still there. Tom grew up all over West Texas and Oklahoma during the Depression. Among his treasured childhood memories were baling hay as a youngster with his close friend and cousin Jeanne Fairman, and the companionship of his dog Ferdinand.  

Tom entered Allen Military Academy at age 13. He excelled in his studies and earned a Golden Glove as a featherweight boxer. He enrolled in The University of Texas pre-med program on a military scholarship. There he fell in love with his wife-to-be, Gelya Anderson, and they married in 1953. They had three children and remained married until her death in November, 2022.  View her memorial page.

A career of service. Tom completed his medical residence in Galveston and became a physician in 1954, specializing in general surgery. He first served in the Air Force as a military doctor (1954-1967), taking his family to live in many parts of Texas and, for three years, in England. He resigned from the Air Force in protest of the fact that the Air Force had no medical chain of command, resulting in the preventable deaths of many air-evacuated wounded soldiers. He joined Springer Clinic in Tulsa, OK (1967-1975), then in 1975 changed his medical specialty from general surgery to the new field of Family Practice, letting his family know that he wanted to take care of more than just pieces of people; he wanted to take care of people. Tom re-joined the military (Army, 1975-1992) to teach and pioneer Family Practice medicine in the Washington, DC area. Throughout his private practice and later Army years he worked extra hours on-call in hospital emergency rooms. Working under the Surgeon General, he also championed Combat Medicine to continue funding for research into a whole-blood substitute, as this would benefit trauma victims well beyond combat medical contexts.

A rich and full life. Tom and Gelya loved music, dancing, and teaching. They danced with many international folk dance groups and founded two groups, first in Tulsa (1967-1975), then in Alexandria, Virginia (1975-1989), where they taught dances every week. They organized a folk dance camp in Arkansas for the Tulsa group to learn from internationally recognized teachers. Many of their lasting adult friendships came from dancing, as well as their many years in Unitarian churches and fellowships. Tom and Gelya also loved to travel. While living in England in the early ‘60s, they took off twice in their Ford Falcon to learn first-hand about the life and history of an impressive number of European countries. From the US, they continued to satisfy their wanderlust in Mexico, Canada, and other countries in Europe and the Caribbean, exploring much of the United States as well.

A creative man.  Tom’s creativity found expression in many ways. He loved woodworking projects and home design. He built five homes for his family throughout their lives in San Antonio, Tulsa, Fairfax County, Va., Santa Fe, and Austin. Each home contained a large dance room. Tom played clarinet as a youth and privately shone through his poetry, never published but penned from an early age and throughout his life, even as dementia infiltrated his mind. Many of his poems expressed love for Gelya, and even the earliest ones evidenced his wicked sense of humor, sense of duty, and deep appreciation for the natural world. One of his Hospice doctors asked permission to copy Tom’s poems about dementia to share with other families because of their clarity and point of view. He also enjoyed playing games with family and with poker and bridge buddies. His commitment to physical fitness and competitive spirit caromed off the walls of handball courts in matches and tournaments that he was still playing regularly in his ’80s.

Committed to civil society and family. Tom volunteered as president of the Memorial Society in San Antonio, helping families in need find alternatives to expensive funeral arrangements. With Neighbor for Neighbor, he volunteered, recruited staff, and procured donations for medical care in Tulsa’s underserved northside community. Tom and Gelya gave generously to citizen-led watchdog groups such as Common Cause as well as to environmental funds. Tom was as responsible, kindhearted, and generous a father and husband as one could imagine and supported all his children in higher education.

In retirement, Tom enjoyed gardening on his own and birding with Gelya. Throughout his life, he devoured books, from Asimov to Korzybski to Sabatini. One of his favorite sayings was, “Always take a book.”  Over a thousand well-read books lined the bookshelves he built over the years. He was especially fond of science fiction and had a massive collection.

Tom is survived by his three children, Marla (1954), Jena (1956) and Bryan (1960); grandchildren Lorenzo, Kunal, and Lilly; and his half-brother Carey (1943). Tom’s other half-brother, John, passed away in 2014 and his cousin Jeanne in 2023.