6-17 IAN Don Thomas

 A tribute to a fallen friend who was the beneficiary of agricultural research. I’m David Sparks and a sad memorial follows. Several weeks ago I received a phone call from an old friend from Phoenix, Az. He said Hi Dave…I have bad news. Don Thomas died last night.  Donny Thomas was a success who owned a business called 2^nd Nature which sold beautiful, decorative castings of wildlife all over the world. He was also ranked #6 in the world as a professional racquetball player and he was an animal on the court…a fierce competitor. I met Donny playing squash,  which is a game much like racquetball, and we became good friends. Years after we became friends and squash opponents, Don started having major problems with mitral valve prolapse … a heart problem in which the valve that separates the upper and lower chambers of the left side of the heart does not close properly. He went to a famous heart institute in Montana and had a valve from a pig’s heart implanted. Here’s North Carolina State University researcher Dr. Greg Buckner who says live pigs are often used to test new surgery techniques.

 Tragically for me and all his friends and family, Donny’s transplanted valve ultimately failed. He was playing squash in Scottsdale…he won his match, stepped off the court and died immediately. It was on the day of his 53^rd birthday. But, due to agricultural research, on live animals, his active life was extende by over 10 years.