When Naydyeyah Acoy-Thomas thinks about her grandfather, Andrew F. Thomas, she remembers a mentor, a mediator, a sharp dresser, a storyteller, and a man with a great sense of humor — and she remembers how her grandfather, known to many as “Pop,” made friends wherever he went.
“We couldn’t go anywhere with Pop, because every minute somebody’s stopping to talk to him — and he was a very social person,” she said. Whether at the airport or visiting the states, Acoy-Thomas recalled how her grandfather, an avid traveler, made “several new friends along the way.”
Thomas, the acclaimed founder of Thomas Bakery and Deli, died Thursday. He was 83.
Born on Trinidad in 1941, Thomas moved to the Virgin Islands in the early 1970s with his family. In his early years, he worked for Scotty’s Bakery in Peter’s Rest, Charles Harwood Hospital, and at the St. Croix refinery, then owned by Hess Oil. His granddaughter, Acoy-Thomas, said a layoff at the refinery prompted Thomas to consider starting a business.
“And he thought about the work he did as an apprentice in a bakery growing up in Trinidad and incorporated those recipes with his grandma’s recipe of making bread,” she said. “That’s where the idea to open a bakery came about.”
Thomas’s daughter, Andrea, said the bakery’s first incarnation was a wooden shed Thomas built behind their Strawberry Hill house in 1984.
“After being reported, and several attempts to shut him down, he was forced into compliance, which prompted him to get the necessary paperwork to open Thomas Bakery as an actual establishment. The people loved his bread, and that encouraged him to keep going,” Acoy-Thomas said.
The first commercial location opened on 33 King Street in Christiansted. Other locations in Estate Diamond and Frederiksted followed.
Today, Thomas’s sought-after titi bread and butter bread can be found at locations in: Castle Coakley, run by his daughter Andrea; Frederiksted, owned by his son Niel; Christiansted owned by his son Gary; and Decatur, Ga., owned by his son and grandson, Ryan and Kye.
Though he nominally stepped down from running the business, Thomas continued showing up to the bakery to oversee production and staff, prepare raisin rolls, supervise his grandchildren, and — occasionally — sneak one of his famous currant rolls.
Acoy-Thomas said her grandfather wanted his family to continue the baking tradition. His grandson, Elijah, vowed to keep Thomas’s legacy alive at the Castle Coakley location, and his children, grandchildren, and staff plan to keep the businesses going for years to come.
Thomas is survived by his wife, Grace Thomas, five children, 24 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
