BEAUMONT, Texas — For many years I have held the belief that it is risky to put the names of living people on the side of buildings or other structures.
Why? Their legacies aren’t complete. Something might happen to tarnish their good names.
Today I laid eyes on just such an example. It only reinforces my belief in this principle: Make sure the person you are honoring has passed from the scene before you put his or her name on a structure.
We drove by the Carrol “Butch” Thomas athletic field this morning. It’s a shiny new field where Beaumont’s public high schools’ athletic teams participate.
Why the concern over Thomas’s name being on it? He retired in 2012 as Beaumont’s school superintendent. Two years later, he crap hit the fan at BISD. The Texas Education Agency fired Thomas’s successor, dismissed the school board and took over day-to-day operation of a school system injured grievously by malfeasance and outright corruption.
Two points: I once observed this school district from my post at the newspaper in Beaumont; but never met Thomas, who became BISD superintendent after we left Beaumont for Amarillo.
I followed this story from afar, though.
It’s impossible for me to believe that much of what exploded after Thomas retired wasn’t already building while he was on the job.
He was a polarizing figure in Beaumont, according to all that I had heard about him. What’s more, the very idea that a sitting superintendent would allow his name to be inscribed on a structure seems off-putting in the extreme.
Thomas said at the time of his retirement that he was leaving while conditions were good. However, the storm clouds were beginning to form.
They broke not long after he left town.
Zooming past that gleaming athletic structure — with his name towering high above everything else nearby — just makes me recall the hazard associated with honoring a living individual
Knowing what I know what has happened to the school district he left behind leaves me with a bitter taste.