Ed Thomas Obituary

"He made a dent in the Universe," said a friend upon learning of Ed's death.

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Everything is a reminder. The antique Peruvian textile, the Guatemalan necklace, the Navajo blankets. Some belonged to his mother, Mariana, who kindled an adventurism in Ed when she would drive her three boys – Ed, Jess and Brian – south of the border for yet another tour through Mexico's magical lands.

Many of these treasures were accumulated during journeys Ed took as an adult before I married him so I know them only through his wondrous stories. They line our shelves, hang on our walls, fill our senses.

And some we bought together in our endless treks to garage sales and flea markets. There was the three-legged bowl that one couple sold for ten cents believing it to be a Mexican trinket. Ed sold the old Mayan bowl for $400. He had an eye. An eye perfected as a child hunting with his father who taught him to hone his sight, observe, and be patient. An eye that traversed the Mexican jungles armed only with his intelligence, fluent Spanish, and courage.

Edwin Ernest Thomas was born on December 28, 1942, in Brownwood, Texas. His father Jesse Thomas worked on the railroad along with his brothers. These were essential jobs keeping the country running and subsequently kept them out of World War II. His mother's brothers fought in WWII and, fortunately, all came back alive.

Ed was part Welsh and part Cherokee on his father's side. One of Jesse's four brothers was named Frank. Family legend says they are descended from the outlaw Jesse James' family. On his mother's side, Ed was related to Light-Horse Harry Lee from the American Revolution and father of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Rogues all.

Jesse married his high school sweetheart Mariana Lanford who, after birthing three boys, wanted more out of life. She was the third woman to graduate the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in architecture and the first registered female architect in Texas. An unusual feat for the 1940's. Their first home together was made up of a couple railroad cars by Lake Brownwood. That's where Ed went wandering, with his loyal dog Flip, who kept watch on this curious boy. It wasn't long before Mariana left her husband behind and moved her three boys to Fort Worth where she designed her own home, built by her engineer brothers, and where Ed learned the building trades from his uncles. He attended Arlington Heights High School and befriended fellow students and eventual successful musicians John Denver, Delbert McClinton, and Sean Phillips, who all gathered at Ed's home one day after school for a jam session. Ed played the bongos.

Mariana went on to design many Ft. Worth homes and kept her calm over the years while Ed was deep in the Mexican jungles, Brian was a forward observer during the Viet Nam War and Jess raced motorcycles, setting the World's Absolute Record for motorcycles at 214.47 mph at Bonneville in 1958 when he was just 18 years old.

Ed attended UT Austin and the University of Mexico but the jungles of Mexico and Panama were his true education. Prior to his move to Taos, Ed had begun a life in Acapulco, Mexico, his home base there, and struck out for the jungles in search of artifacts, discovering sites, employing the locals. He would buy them a year's worth of rice, beans, and more, and they would help him find fascinating artifacts no one had ever seen before. One time he inadvertently killed a rabbit with a tossed stick and the hungry villagers wanted him to live with them, and endow them with his magic.

Ed was the first amateur archeologist/anthropologist/historian/collector to 'discover' a rare Pre-Columbian pre-classic figurine type that became known as Xalitla, named after the village of Xalitla. They were found by the villagers while digging a well. The cache of about 300 small figurines were made in approximately 2000BC.

During those years, Ed acquired vast knowledge and became a well-respected expert on pre-Columbian artifacts that he discovered, sold, traded and wrote about – origin stories and descriptions of artifacts previously unrealized until he alone deciphered them. He was a genius.

He met a variety of characters during his years in Acapulco, including Frank Capra Jr., who was trying to follow in his filmmaker father's footsteps ("It's a Wonderful Life," etc.). Frank had an idea about jungle smugglers and wanted Ed to join him at a meeting in Hollywood to pitch his idea. The two producers weren't interested in Frank's idea but they found Ed fascinating and invited him to dinner where they grilled him about his Mexican adventures. Several years later, the first Indiana Jones movie was released with Harrison Ford wearing a fedora just like Ed always did. (Fair-skinned Ed was told by his grandmother to wear a hat in the Texas sun. Ed always wore a fedora during those years instead of a cowboy hat.) He then realized that one of the producers he'd met with was Steven Spielberg. He didn't know who he was at that dinner. So, no consultation fee for Ed. They used his essence but not his stories.

Frank flew to Ft. Worth beseeching Ed to return to Hollywood as his partner in the film business. Ed declined and returned to Mexico and his life of discovery. In the 1970's, he began dividing his time between Mexico and Taos, where he fell in with the local and renowned art community, including Jim Wagner, Ken Price, Larry Bell, Gus Foster and more, as well as actor/artist Dennis Hopper who managed to track down Ed in Mexico to see if he wanted to buy "Captain America," the motorcycle Hopper rode in "Easy Rider." Ed declined.

Ed married artist Nora Anthony, built the first pumice house in New Mexico and built an anagama kiln to fire his beautiful ceramics. He shared the kiln with his artist friends including Ken Price and Lee Mullican.

In 1998, Ed divorced and met his future wife, Jeanne Gordon, a retired Special Correspondent for Newsweek magazine, who was visiting Taos. They married in 1999, moved to his home state of Texas, then to Bainbridge Island, WA, for nine years and back to Taos in 2011, where Ed effortlessly slipped back into his previous life for the next fifteen years. But complications of dementia took him from us on March 30, this year, at age 83.

As his artist friend Gus Foster said, "Ed was truly a one-of-a-kind individual and was part of the fabric of Taos, learned and humorous. He will be missed by all who knew him." Including his brothers Brian and Jess and many cousins. And I, his wife, will miss him forever. Ed was a remarkable, brilliant and generous person. He was all about making people happy.

As one friend wrote: "Vaya con Dios Ed Thomas. Raconteur. Poker Player. Trader. Friend."

By Jeanne Gordon Thomas