Thomas Calvin Nisbet

Tommy Calvin Nisbet strolled into Heaven on August 2, 2018 to join his wife, Mary Lou, who left us only a year and 2 days earlier. He passed away peacefully in his home at Brookdale South in San Angelo.

He was born January 18, 1937 in Plainview, Texas to Calvin and Cecilia Nisbet. His father passed away in 1941 and his mother later married Joe Harris who raised Tommy as if he were his own. He had a brother Carey Nisbet and a sister Celia Jo Harris. The family, between his step father’s military service and work opportunities moved between Plainview, Abernathy, San Angelo, Sweetwater, Noble OK, and back to San Angelo where he graduated from San Angelo High School in 1955. He went to San Angelo College and later to Texas Tech where he graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Husbandry in 1960. He worked for a few years driving a milk truck which led to an opportunity to be a health inspector for the Amarillo City Health Department. While working for the health department, he met a “beautiful nurse,” Mary Lou Keahey, and they got married on May 30, 1969. He later went to work for the Texas Department of Health and continued working for the State of Texas with various agencies in Amarillo and San Antonio until his retirement in 1999. After his retirement he discovered his love for photography and became very active in the photography club in Amarillo. He began volunteering at the Visitor’s Center at Palo Duro Canyon in 1999, and was also very involved in the Partners in Palo Duro Foundation.

Tommy and Mary Lou had two children, Steve and Shelley Nisbet. They were very involved parents, and Tommy helped coach t-ball, softball, and soccer for many years. He participated in YMCA Indian Guides and Indian Princesses, Trailblazers, and he and Mary Lou participated together as band parents in Amarillo and church choir parents in Amarillo and San Antonio. They were amazing parents and Tommy was, until the end, the most amazing Dad, always filled with kindness and wonderful words of wisdom such as “kill them with kindness” when someone was being unkind to one of us; “you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar,” and the favorite “keep the shiny side up” anytime we had to get on the road.

Tommy was preceded in death by his father Calvin Nisbet, his brother Carey Nisbet, his mother Cecilia Harris, his step father Joe Harris, and his wife Mary Lou Nisbet. Tommy is survived by his son Steve Nisbet and wife Robbin of Buffalo, Minnesota, his daughter Shelley Harris and husband Ed of San Angelo, Texas, by grandkids Megan and Jacob Metz and Clinton and Christina Harris. He is also survived by his sister Celia Jo Hedges, of Arizona, sister-in-law Sheryl Blagg and husband Fred of Amarillo, Texas, along with nieces and nephews throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Massachusetts. We would also like to acknowledge special friends, the Doug and Martha Moore family of Odessa, Texas, and their children who have always been more family than friends.

We give great thanks to Janie Davila who has faithfully been there as his caregiver and our friend, and thanks to the staff and residents at Brookdale South for their kindness, love and compassion.

There will be a visitation today at 5:00 pm at Schooler Funeral Home, 4100 S. Georgia, and funeral service will be 10:00 a.m., on Monday, August 6, at St. Stephen’s UMC with Dr. Jim Smith officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Children’s Miracle Network or Partners in Palo Duro Foundation.

Online condolences may be shared at www.schoolerfuneralhome.com