Thomas Roy Ferguson

Thomas Roy Ferguson of Dumas, Texas, passed away at home on June 17, 2023.

Surviving Tom is his brother, Robert Ferguson. Preceding him in death are his wife, Peggy Ferguson, and his parents, James and Lucile Ferguson.

Other survivors include five children: Bud Martin and wife Brenda, Kim Yearwood and husband Mark, Jaimie Wilson and husband Matt, Dr. Daniel Ferguson and wife Jennifer, and Aimie Ingersoll and husband Chad. Grandchildren include Damon, Tyler, Chelsea, Brad, Arila, Jacob, Emily, Jae, Troy, Benjamin, Christian, Jayci, Jaz, and Lando, along with sixteen great-grandchildren.

Tom was born to James Ferguson and Lucile Boney Ferguson in Amarillo, Texas, on March 20, 1941. He grew up in Happy, Texas, where he worked at a gas station with Jack Driskill (who became his best friend for life), graduated high school, and matriculated on to Texas Tech University where he was joined by Jack. Tom graduated with a Bachelor’s of Industrial Engineering.

Tom loved working. His mind was always focused on one if not more than one big project at a time. With his wife Peggy, he began a thriving real estate company called Ad Rem Real Estate. They also ventured into a development west of town along with various rental properties.

Tom loved Dumas, Texas, and Moore County; and he gave his all to the community of Moore County. From years of serving the community through the Sunray Lions Club, the Dumas Noon Lions Club, Meals on Wheels, and improving housing for many of the town’s citizens, to earning in 2010 the Dumas/Moore County Outstanding Citizen Award and then ten years later the Lifetime Achievement Award for all his devotion, work, and dedication to improving the community he loved; Tom loved helping his community and mentoring its leaders. He was a natural teacher but extremely humble about it.  Perhaps his biggest accomplishment was chairing the Moore County Hospital Board that would eventually build a state-of-the-art new hospital with the most passionate and caring staff in the region.

He loved God and old gospel hymns. He also loved classic country music and the great Willie Nelson. Most of all, he loved his family. He adored his wife, and he was always planning reunions, vacations, and holidays to get his children and their families together. These were special times for everyone in the family. He wore a perpetual grin during these gatherings. He loved seeing the little ones and gave them all his Papa Tom special nicknames. He loved recalling the early days of grandkids and all their shenanigans. He loved grilling at many of these occasions, especially when camping in Colorado where he sat like a king on an old orange office chair that his brother-in-law, Gene Sipes, saved from the camp dumpster just for Tom. He loved it.

Tom bought a 1941 Hudson that he found in a vacant lot in Gruver, Texas. This was not any 1941 Hudson, though. He identified it by a dent from years past and knew then it had belonged to his grandfather. Tom loved old cars in parades and shows, but he had never bought one until the Hudson. It was special. Years before he found it, he talked about how much he wished he had it, and then he found it after 50 years of thinking about it. He was so proud to donate it to the Window on the Plains Museum where all can see it now and read about this incredible piece of Texas Panhandle history.

Tom cherished family memories. One of his favorites was a time when one grandson challenged another to ride a Fisher Price horse on wheels down the basement stairs. The challenge was bravely accepted, and down the horse and rider went eventually leaving an ugly gash in the wall, not sticking the landing as planned. To commemorate this event years later, Papa Tom bought antique Fisher Price horses for the grandsons.

Tom loved jokes and loved playing jokes on people. One Christmas he had bought out a closing business and all their furniture and supplies. Thereupon he took boxes and boxes of old paper clips and made a deal with Santa Claus to use them to fill the children’s stockings. That was typical fare for the Ferguson family patriarch.

He also loved going to Texas Tech football games. On one occasion, one of his sons brought along his boss, a graduate of UT, to a UT/Tech game. The man was clad in burnt orange head to toe, and the son was nervous, knowing at any minute that his dad would play a joke on the unsuspecting UT fan. And there was Tom’s moment. Out in the middle of nowhere, Tom looked in the rearview mirror at the UT fan, again one of his son’s higher up bosses, and uttered this question: “Paul, should your team win, I trust you have secured a ride home?” Paul took it well, the son held his head in dismay, and Tom grinned proudly at his successful joke.

Thank God for memories. Not every man gets to leave a legacy. However, Tom did. Peggy and Tom set the bar high for what a family should be to each other and for what a business should represent. He gave his time and energy to mentoring and assisting Dumas and Moore County citizens even up until the end. Always concerned with doing the right thing, his ethics were of the highest standards. And for his family, love was above all.

The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, from 6 P.M. to 7 P.M.

Funeral services will be held at 1:00 P.M. on Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at First Baptist Church of Dumas with Gordon Clark and Cheryl Clark officiating.  Burial will follow at the Dumas Cemetery.  Arrangements are by Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors of Dumas, 500 N. Maddox.

*The family wishes to offer special thanks to the excellent staff of Memorial Hospice for their tender loving care.