I was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, on Friday morning, November 27, 1942, early enough that my Dad, Kenneth Tomlin, could arrive on time at his job at a defense plant during the middle of World War II. He was proud to have a healthy son and also glad to contribute another full day to the war effort. On reflection, I think I was off to a good start.
My parents, Kenneth and Hope (Pitts) Tomlin, of Van Zandt County, Texas, later settled in Tyler, Texas, a beautiful East Texas city known as the Rose Capitol of the World for the many varieties of roses grown locally. Just a few years later, my older sister Kay and I were joined by our baby brother Tommy and our family was complete.
Tyler was a great city to grow up in. Good schools, parks, people and only about thirty-five miles away from the farm that my Dad’s parents owned. This land, now mine, has been in the Tomlin family since just after the Civil War, and for me this is a peaceful place to be.
After graduating from John Tyler High School, I attended Tyler Junior College and was elected cheerleader my freshman year.
The football team was 12-0 that year and we played our final game in the Junior Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The fact that we were defeated did not diminish the excitement of an across-the-continent bus caravan, the longest trip in my life at that point. Basketball season was also stellar for the Tyler Junior College Apaches that year, and I was able to journey to Hutchinson, Kansas, where our team placed second in the NJCAA National Basketball Tournament. Being a cheerleader did have benefits!
Academically my sights were set on a degree in biology, with aspirations of a career in dentistry. Even during military service in the US Army during the Vietnam War, it seemed that my future was dentistry, as I was an instructor in the Department of Dental Science at 4th Army Headquarters in Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas until my release from active duty. My goal, on receiving my BS in Biology from Stephen F. Austin State University, was to attend dental school. Little did I know that a transfer student from a California chiropractic college would through his enthusiastic description of chiropractic and the merits oft the Texas Chiropractic College, lead me to a career in chiropractic. God bless him!
I was able to join the September 1976 freshman class at Texas Chiropractic College and graduated in May, 1980. During my senior year, I commented to a classmate that “I was not a political animal.” That was not the first time I was wrong, and it wasn’t the last time, either! I found that we are all, to some degree, political in most aspects of life, and certainly in chiropractic. My wife Leslea and I married in 1979 during my junior year, and she is my best asset. I know this because she told me so. When I figured out that political involvement was vital to me personally and professionally, she and I began to actively involve ourselves. Now some thirty-plus years later, we can look back at work done for the TCC Alumni Association, TCC Board of Regents, TCA and TCAuxilary boards with pride. We also found opportunities to become involved in local political campaigns for city council, mayor, state representative and senator, constable, etc.
Our church is the New Life Baptist Church of East Houston, where we maintain an active membership. I also serve as Church trustee.
Professionally, I have been honored to have served for nine years as the team Chiropractor of the Houston Oilers (that association ending when the team relocated to become the Tennessee Titans), the National Hot Rod Association Division IV Chiropractor, and currently am Team Chiropractor for North Shore High School Athletic Department (GPISD) with four State Championships including football, basketball and track and field.
I served on the Texas Chiropractic College Alumni Board of Directors for ten years, plus two years as Vice President and two more as President; TCC Board of Regents, five years; TCA District 11 Director, Vice Offices of Secretary, President Elect and President, and several appointed positions on the TCA Board. As a point of pride, I have been the recipient of the Membership Award for most new TCA members secured for a total of eight years. To the many thousands of patients who have been treated by this country doctor who just happens to …
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