Frank Thomas 



continued 



"I think Frank's principal contribu- 

 tion to the seafood industry is bring- 

 ing automation, quality control, the 

 overall sophistication and general 

 development to the state that it is to- 

 day," says Alvah Ward, director of 

 Business/Industry Development with 

 the N.C. Department of Commerce. 



"I can remember when quality con- 

 trol was zero. It was a wooden fish box 

 with splinters and rusty shovels,' ' says 

 Ward, who has known Thomas for 

 more than 20 years. 



Now, North Carolina boasts some of 

 the most technically advanced sea- 

 food processing plants in the country. 



Thomas earned his doctorate at 

 Pennsylvania State University in hor- 

 ticulture and completed a prestigious 

 fellowship in seafood technology at 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology. 



In 1958 Thomas joined the faculty 

 at North Carolina State University as a 

 food processing specialist in the hor- 

 ticulture department. 



Before long, he was answering 

 phone calls about processing every- 

 thing from baby foods to peaches to 

 seafood. But he took a particular in- 

 terest in the seafood questions. 



When the university hired a spe- 

 cialist to handle fruits and vegetables, 

 Thomas was free to concentrate on 

 seafood. 



"I realized that the seafood industry 

 needed developing in North Carolina. 

 It was much more disjointed than it is 

 today. And it was really not even 

 recognized as being a great player in 

 the state's economy' ' Thomas says. 



"There was no data available. 

 Pasteurization was a new word. De- 

 mand for seafood wasn't there. All 

 these things we know today were very 

 primitive then." 



But perhaps his greatest challenge 

 was getting people in the seafood in- 

 dustry to listen to him. 



Like a traveling salesman, Thomas 

 took to the roads of coastal North 

 Carolina, spreading the word about 

 advances in seafood processing. To- 

 day he claims the distinction of know- 

 ing every shortcut in that territory. 



' 'You didn't cut "You constantly 



all the ice on 



your first trip,' ' have to refocus 



Thomas says. 



"It took two or your energy 



three visits to 



establish trust. because the re- 



And a few months 



later, you see source is always 



that he's adopting 



what you've been changing." 



telling him. 



"When he found out I'd done him a 

 service, eventually the word got out 

 through the industry that I could help 

 them out," Thomas says. 



Sea Grant Director B.J. Copeland 

 credits Thomas with establishing one 

 of the country's first seafood extension 

 services. His strong point was recog- 

 nizing a need, then pulling together 

 the expertise to attack the problem, 

 Copeland says. 



Tom Caroon, owner of Tom Thumb 

 Seafood in Oriental and the president 

 of the N.C. Fisheries Association, says 

 the times Thomas helped are too 

 numerous to mention. 



Suffice it to say that Caroon knew 

 who to call if his pasteurized crab had 

 a gray color, if he had a bacterial 

 problem or if his equipment wasn't 

 functioning properly. 



And if Thomas couldn't answer the 



Photo by Nancy Davis 



question, he found someone who 

 could, Caroon says. "I really looked to 

 him as my troubleshooter." 



Thomas was always one step ahead 

 of his time. Early on, he was con- 

 cerned about pollution problems the 

 seafood industry might create. He 

 convinced industry personnel that 

 they could build their plants at water's 

 edge if they designed them properly 

 to handle the wastes. 



A crab plant in Barco is testimonial 

 to that. In 1968 Thomas and col- 

 league Roy Carawan consulted with 

 the plant's owners. "They wanted to 

 run their liquid waste overboard," 

 Thomas says. "So we said, 'Let us 

 design your system.' We put in a huge 

 septic system. They did as we recom- 

 mended, and they've never had a 

 waste or pollution problem to this 

 day' ' 



By encouraging innovations such as 

 that, Thomas helped usher the sea- 

 food industry into the future. 



In those days, much of the state's 

 seafood was packed in ice and 

 shipped to other states where it was 

 processed. 



By bringing the state's seafood 

 processors up-to-date with new tech- 

 nology, Thomas opened the way for 

 more seafood to be processed here. 



"Through the work that Frank did 



■ Frank Thomas 



