Thomas Alan Jenkins

Thomas A. Jenkins of Indianapolis died on July 30, 2026, just short of his 84th birthday and 60th wedding anniversary.

He loved to read the daily obituaries and would often sarcastically quip about the florid language and fanciful euphemisms. He wanted his obituary to say, “He’s Dead, Nuff Said” but his family couldn’t bring themselves to do it.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio to Bud and Eleanor Jenkins and he was an only child. He moved to the Broad Ripple area of Indianapolis with his parents while young and was in the first graduating class at North Central High School (Class of 1960).

Growing up he loved to play baseball, playing catcher for North Central High School and in the Broad Ripple Merchants C league. Later as an adult, his Indianapolis Bar Association team won the League softball championship in 1977. He also loved to ice skate at the Coliseum at the Fair Grounds. This was before the Zamboni and he would skate around to scrape, clean,and flood the ice which earned him an all day skating pass. There was no ice hockey in Indianapolis at that time but he would later play in senior leagues around the city. He always enjoyed sports and the camaraderie of being part of a team.

He attended Purdue University intending to become an engineer but quickly discovered his love of the Liberal Arts, especially American Literature and the Russian language. While at Purdue, he joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity, a brotherhood that resulted in meaningful connections for him across several generations, including his future father-in-law. He often said he was a Buckeye by birth, a Hoosier by choice and a Boilermaker by the Grace of God. He continued his involvement with Purdue as an alum serving as President of the College of Liberal Arts Alumni Board and on the Dean’s Advisory Council. He won an Outstanding Alumni Award from the College in 1991, and, with his wife Kathy, established a scholarship for liberal arts students to study abroad. He and Kathy had tickets for Purdue Football games through good years and not so good and shared a mutual love and loyalty to Purdue. Boiler Up!!

After graduating from Purdue, Tom enrolled at the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University in Bloomington. He graduated in 1968 and began his work as an attorney in the American Fletcher National Bank Trust Department where he eventually became a Vice President and Senior Counsel for the Trust Department. He valued his time and friendships formed while working at the Bank and still maintained connections with fellow bank employees.

AFNB was eventually merged with Bank One and when Bank One asked Tom to relocate to their headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, Tom and Kathy decided to remain in Indianapolis. Tom then joined the Law Firm of Hall, Render, Killian, Heath and Lyman working in the area of Trusts and Estates. He valued that he had the experience of both working as a corporate attorney and in private practice with a law firm. He retired from Hall Render. Tom truly loved practicing law.

Tom and his wife, Kathy (Nolte) Jenkins, met at North Central and dated for six years before being married in 1966. They were devoted to one another and their children Sarah Huffman (Chris), Seth Jenkins (Patience) and Dan Jenkins (Kassi). Tom loved coaching his kids in hockey, soccer and baseball. He was very involved with his son Seth in Boy Scouts. He and Sarah shared an Indian Princess experience, and Tom always was active with Dan as he played travel hockey, soccer and baseball. He and Kathy served as youth leaders at their church. If his kids were involved, Tom was involved.

His humor was unmistakably ‘Dad’ in nature and he was never shy to share a corny joke. However, with his friends, he was famous for some jokes on the raunchier side. Puns were a specialty. Much to his wife’s chagrin, he was constantly singing songs that he made up on the spot. A favorite Christmas tradition was the family photo with comical noses, moustaches, or animal mouths.

To his grandchildren, Eleanor (Ellie) and Ethan Huffman, Lillian Jenkins, and Kaiden and Kylie Barrett, he was known as ‘Who-who’. He became Who-Who when he announced that he wanted to be known as el viejo (the old one). Ellie, the oldest grandchild, couldn’t say el viejo, and started calling him Who-Who instead. From then on, he was Who-Who to the family.

Tom’s vivid imagination inspired him to create fictional tales for his kids and grandkids, known as Mickey Bug stories. They featured an array of characters that would adventure together, and the stories almost always had a lesson that mirrored the lives of the listeners. In addition to these stories, his grandkids will also remember him for the famous buttermilk pancakes that he would cook on the griddle outside. To this day, they swear that these are the best pancakes they’ve had, and still bicker over who will get to keep the original recipe book once they have families of their own.

He was a devoted pet parent to the family’s many dogs and cats, all of whom were adopted from various rescue groups or showed up as strays. His current dog, Foxy, loved sharing his recliner with him.

Tom became involved with Meridian Street United Methodist Church first as a youth group leader. He served for many years as chairman of the Permanent Endowment Committee. In 1994 he was a member of a Meridian Street team that traveled to Russia to build houses on a collective farm. That memorable experience led him to participate in other service work trips, traveling three times to Guatemala and once to Puerto Rico after the devastating hurricane.

Always up for an adventure, several times Tom packed the family up to visit some foreign land that Seth had wandered off to. England and France, Mexico, and the Czech Republic all were the focus of trips that Clark W. Griswold might have planned and could have made for Vacation sequels parts IV, V, and VI.

Tom and Kathy always shared a love of travel both within the US and to other countries. As their work life slowed down they traveled to most of the countries in Europe, to Africa, to the Middle East, to Asia, to New Zealand, and South and Central America.

While he was the consummate Hoosier and would love to sing, “Back Home Again in Indiana”, Tom also felt great affinity toward points north. His favorite summer activities were wilderness canoe trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Quetico Provincial Park and trips to the Watervale Inn, along Michican’s M-22 in the dunes and fruit orchards of northern Michigan. Tom had a great love for wild and natural places, to hear a loon call as a campfire dwindled to ashes or drink a cup of water straight from the side of the canoe; these things brought great joy to his life, and he relished sharing them with others. Along on his canoe trips he took family, friends, scouts, and would always be ready to break out the slide projector to show you his latest trip.

After Tom and Kathy retired, they started spending time on Siesta Key in Florida and made dear friends that they looked forward to seeing each winter.

From the early days of its founding Tom and Kathy enjoyed the Indiana Repertory Theatre. They had season tickets for many years, and Tom served on the Board of Directors for the Theatre. They valued all of the cultural institutions in Indianapolis and loved that Indianapolis transitioned from the Naptown of the fifties to such an interesting place to live.

There will be a visitation at Meridian Street UMC, 5500 N. Meridian St. on August 11 from 4:00-7:00 p.m. The Funeral will be held on August 12 at 1:00 p.m. also at Meridian Street UMC. A Celebration of Life reception will be held at Hoosier Village, 9870 Cherryleaf Drive, following the funeral, at 3:30 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Meridian Street United Methodist Church, the Indianapolis Humane Society or to WFYI Public Broadcasting.