Thomas Jenkins, Class of 1962

Thomas Jenkins ’62 died Feb. 12, 2022. Tom was born on February 9, 1940 in Cleveland, Ohio to the late Thomas and Erma (Jonas) Jenkins. Tom attended Otterbein College where he received his bachelor’s degree in history & political science. While in college, he was in the ROTC, Lambda Gamma Epsilon (Kings) fraternity and met and married Sandra Salisbury ’64. Tom later attended the University of New Haven in Connecticut where he earned his MBA in 1979.
After graduating from Otterbein, Tom proudly served as an officer in the United States Airforce from. He completed tours of duty in Ohio, Vietnam and Colorado. Tom made his career in the field of employee education and development in the healthcare industry. He worked for healthcare systems in Connecticut, Michigan and California.
After retirement Tom and Sandy moved to Easley, South Carolina. Here he enjoyed classes at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute program at Furman University. Tom was an avid reader with an interest in Civil War history and politics. He enjoyed traveling and loved to plan his own trips. He and Sandy traveled both domestically and internationally including 2 trips with the Otterbein Travelers. He loved railroads and recently completed one of his bucket list items — traveling by rail from South Carolina across the southern US to California and across the northern US on his return home to South Carolina. Tom was active in community service with the Jaycees, Special Olympics, Toastmasters, several churches, and the American Field Service. He and Sandy hosted exchange students from Sri Lanka and Japan. In retirement Tom enjoyed working as a volunteer AARP tax preparer.
Tom is survived by his wife, son Jonathan Jenkins, sisters, Judy ‘58 & John Howe ’57 and Jill ‘66 & Michael Grayem’66.
Along with his parents he was preceded in death by his sister Janet Jenkins Halberg ’54.