Thomas E. Hines' Obituary
THOMAS E. HINES, Civic ActivistThomas E. Hines, a civic activist in northwest Dallas for decades, died June 18 after several years in nursing care. He was 80 years old.There will be a memorial service at 2 p.m., Thursday, June 27, in the Ellis Chapel of Park Cities Baptist Church, 3933 Northwest Parkway.His wife of 44 years, the former Colleen Mullis, a nursing administrator and public health official in Dallas for about 50 years, died in 2014.Mr. Hines had served on several city and county boards, including the City of Dallas Commission on Productivity and Innovation, Board of Adjustment, Park and Recreation Board and Citizens Police Review Board. After September 11, 2001, he was appointed to the Dallas County Homeland Security Advisory Council, including a term as chairman.His civic engagement began with service in the 1970s on the Dallas Fire Council, and he was active for the rest of his life in support of the Dallas Fire Department.Mr. Hines’s wider influence stemmed in large part from his long association with the Northwest Dallas Improvement League, including an extended period as president of the large civic association. During that time the Dallas Morning News cited Mr. Hines as a civic leader whom political aspirants would be wise to seek out.He was associated most notably with then-City Council member Mitchell Rasansky. In 2002, Mr. Hines was presented a Special Recognition proclamation by the Council. As she was leaving the Council in 2013, Council member Ann Margolin said civic dedication such as Mr. Hines’s “is often thankless work” to make neighborhoods better and safer.Although city politics is nominally nonpartisan, Mr. Hines was, most of his life, a Republican.Thomas Eugene Hines was born August 23, 1938, in Shreveport, Louisiana, to Clay G. Hines, whose family settled in southern Dallas County before the Civil War, and Margaret Camp Hines, whose family included mid-19th-century settlers in northwestern Louisiana.Thomas Hines was educated initially in the Dallas Public Schools but graduated in 1958 from Highland Park High School. He attended what are now the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of North Texas and also studied at Southern Methodist University and Abilene Christian University.In the early 1960s, Mr. Hines was in the U.S. Army, including tours with the Army Security Agency in South Korea and at Fort George G. Meade in Maryland.Mr. Hines was in sales for most of his professional life, including 16 years at Braniff International Airways until its initial closure and 20 years at Lone Star Safety & Supply Inc. Near the beginning and at the end of his career he was in real estate.He was a deacon at Park Cities Baptist Church. He and Mrs. Hines were part of a core group from that church in the 1980s that helped found Valley Ranch Baptist Church in Coppell.He had been an officer, including president, of the North Dallas Golden K Kiwanis.Survivors include a brother, Cragg Hines, of Arlington, Va., a brother- and sister-in-law, David W. and Rebecca J. Mullis of Good Hope, Georgia; nieces Megan Mullis Green of Bishop, Georgia, and Meredith McNeill Mullis Rutland of Tifton, Georgia.Memorial suggestions include the American Cancer Society and the Barbara Colegrove Journalism Scholarship Endowment at the University of North Texas.
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