Houston & Texas News
May 4, 2007, 2:27AM
Obituary
Summers, ex-engineer, show cave manager
By SALATHEIA BRYANT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Thomas A. Summers III, a mechanical engineer for 20 years who moved to the
Boerne area to help manage a show cave owned by his family, died Monday in a
caving accident.
Summers, 44, was remembered by those who knew him as an outdoorsman with a
broad, ready smile, especially when he talked about caves.
Family friend Dayna Cartwright said Summers' love for caves came from his
father. He left his engineering career to partner with his father to manage
Cave Without A Name.
"As soon as he got us down in the cave, he grinned from ear to ear," Cartwright
said. "He would point out every single formation. You could tell that it's what
he loved doing. He genuinely loved it."
Family members declined to comment about his death.
The accident occurred in a wild undeveloped place called Dead Man's Cave.
Cartwright said Summers and another employee of Cave Without A Name went into
Dead Man's Cave to find the source of a water blockage that was affecting the
water flow inside Cave Without A Name, located about 30 miles north of San
Antonio. The caves are connected through underground tunnels.
According to published reports, Summers swam into a section where the ceiling
was just inches above the water.
After hearing "a sputtering sound" from Summers, the other employee got no
response from his calls and went for help. Rescue crews used pumps to lower the
water level so a cave diver could retrieve Summers' body.
Before the Summers family took over Cave Without A Name it was described as a
mom-and-pop operation by National Caves Association President Brad Wuest, whose
family owns and operates Natural Bridge Caverns.
Summers is credited with several improvements, including replacing a gravel
road with a paved one, expanding the parking lot and remodeling the visitors
center. He also had increased marketing efforts.
The cave opened as an attraction in 1939, and a contest was held to name it.
They wound up heeding the suggestion of a student who said, "The cave is too
pretty to have a name."
Stalactites, stalagmites and soda straws are features of the cave, which is
reached by 126 steps plunging down about 90 feet.
Cartwright said Summers was active in the Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce,
graduating from Leadership Boerne in 2005.
Summers is survived by his wife, Joan, and four children, John Joseph, William
Matthew, Anne Marie and Renee Kathleen; parents Thomas A. Summers Jr. and Linda
Sutherland Summers of Houston; his sister, Laura, and her husband, Todd Knop of
Austin; his sister-in-law, Pat Moser of Houston; his brother-in-law, Pete
Moser, and his wife, Betty, of Houston.
A rosary will be recited at 7 tonight at Vaughan's Funeral Home in Boerne. A
funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Joseph's at
Honeycreek.
The Associated Press and San Antonio Express-News contributed to this report.
salatheia.bry...@chron.com
