As Told By: Sherry Kapfer Watkins
I am Sherry Kapfer Watkins, Clayton Thomas' oldest daughter. Thank you all SO MUCH for coming today to share in celebrating my father's life. I know others today will talk about Dad's incredible professional career. I'd like to speak from a more personal, family perspective. To me, Dad's most memorable trait was his PASSION for everything in life. He had such a passion for LEARNING. Mom calls him a "Man of the Mind." Beginning when he was 7 years old and his Mother caught him reading math books under the bedcovers with a flashlight, until his last days when he was listening to tapes about alternative medicine and self-healing, he filled his days with learning. When he was in Ecuador in the U.S. Army Air Force, he taught himself to play the organ and to read 11 different languages, using the Bible. When he met my Mother in college, he sought her out because she, like he, had attained a perfect score on a national achievement test. When he had a part-time job shelving books in the St. Joseph, Missouri public library, he taught himself to be ambidextrous. He seized every opportunity with his five children and 9 grandchildren to help us learn, whether it was projecting the stars on the ceiling of our bedrooms with a children's planetarium, taking us to the Smithsonian, or discussing math problems at the dinner table. I'm sure he is happily fascinated learning about Heaven, now.
Dad had a passion for HIS FAMILY. He was a committed family man. He adored my mother, wrote songs about her, read poetry with her, and staunchly supported her in all of her PTA, American Field Service, and other community activities. He even regaled us with his rendition of the song, "Girl Scouts Together," when he and Mom served on the Girl Scout Council. With each of his children and grandchildren, he encouraged us to pursue OUR passions while we were growing up. Whether it was piano or clarinet lessons, soccer, basketball, art, or dance lessons, he was there for us. This continued long after we left home, throughout our lives.
He was passionate about being A PARENT. He served as a father not only to his 4 daughters and 1 son, but to so many people, from so many places. As a mentor and hero to MY son, Dad inspired Craig to pursue a career as a Computer Scientist and Mathematician. He gave the same kind of intensity to helping all of his younger grandchildren. When I became interested in having our family host foreign exchange students through the American Field Service, so did he; there are now people in 9 different countries who each spent a year with our family who call him their US Dad.
He was passionate about his PROFESSIONAL COLLEAGUES. He took great pleasure in communicating with his coworkers and reveled in the minds of those with whom he did research. Time and again, he would regale us with anecdotes about the office, and quotations from his peers.
He was passionate about his COUNTRY. His pride in his son's participation in Desert Storm was immeasurable. His loyalty was boundless.
He was passionately ETHICAL, with an unmatched sense of integrity. He also had a wonderful, wry sense of humor. I remember walking down the street with him in Chicago when I was 5. We did not own a car at that point. Suddenly he stopped in front of a Chevrolet and said, "Well, this looks like a nice car; why don't we go for a drive?" Aghast, I said, "But Dad, it doesn't belong to us, and you say we should NEVER steal anything." Even then, he had instilled in me his unswerving commitment to honesty, and it took several days to convince me that the car keys were his rightful property, the result of an honest purchase.
He was passionate about his PROFESSION. Amazingly dedicated, he would go to work at 3:00 in the morning and return home at 7:00 at night, most of his working life. He did not consider work a chore. He loved what he did, and did what he loved.
He was passionate about LIVING HIS LIFE TO THE FULLEST. Even after some of those 16-hour work days, he always spent time with his family, talking to Mom about everything from great books to the events of the day, and helping the rest of us with homework, or just the basic lessons of everyday life. He was passionate about MUSIC. Every Saturday afternoon we listened to the Metropolitan Opera broadcast. We were all schooled in classical music, and regularly he and Mom took us to the National Symphony, concerts on the Mall, and the Sunday night concerts at the National Art Gallery. He sometimes combined with that passion for music his love of math. I remember when I was 10 I had just become interested in listening to the "Top 40" on the radio. He would spend Saturday nights maintaining lists with me of which songs stayed in the Top 40 from one week to the next, and teaching me to determine the probability that a given song would remain there for x number of weeks.
He was also a master of UNDERSTATEMENT and HUMILITY. Innumerable people commented about his humble, self-effacing manner. He spent lots of time telling us about the accomplishments of others. Fascinated by biographies of famous people, he wanted to try applying their successes to his life so that he could "be a better person." It was not until this past week that even we, his close family, found out about some of the awards he had won, and the honors he had achieved.
Dad was passionate about helping people THINK for themselves. I remember one letter he sent me when I was at Northwestern University when I wanted to go to the U. of Wisconsin for homecoming weekend. Totally nondirective, he Never said "I don't think you should go, you only have two weeks before final exams and should stay home and study." Instead, he asked if I had thought about what the results of being away for a few days might be, and the relative merits of going away versus staying home. And whatever our decisions were, he was supportive.
Most of all, Dad was passionate about BEING PASSIONATE. He believed that as long as you tried your best at everything you did, you could do no wrong. That included the incredible courage he displayed throughout severe illness. He lived that philosophy out, to the very end, even through years of intense pain, and passed away with the same bravery, grace, and dignity with which he lived. God bless you, Daddy. We love you infinitely.