Thomas Obit- Final Draft

Lee A. Thomas, a Korean War veteran, skilled carpenter and chef who served as a principal at two different high schools in Wisconsin, died Saturday morning of natural causes at his home in Madison. He was 60.

Lee was survived by his wife Barb, 57; his three sons Jeremy, 30; Jonathan, 23 and Jeffrey, 22 and his daughter Jennifer, 27. He also had four grandchildren, Breanna Thomas, Michael Thomas, Dawn Thomas and Timothy Kline.

He was a well-rounded person and he believed that it was very important for one to be multi-talented. He was very active in many activities such as church cleanups and services, skeet shooting, hunting, fishing, cooking and wood crafting.

“The guy seemed like he could just do it all,” said one of his long-time neighbors Charles Amera. “I would look over sometimes and he would be working on his ’54 pickup truck one minute and then the next minute he would be cleaning the gutters or resurfacing the driveway.”

Thomas was born into a seven-child family in Tallulah, La. On May 2, 1945. The oldest son Gabe watched after all the other children when their parents weren’t at home. This became a trend for the older children as Lee was the second oldest child and took on the same responsibility when Gabe gave it up. The rest of Lee’s siblings include Steve, Lois, Betty, Frankie and Vivian.

Lee graduated from Ruben McCall High School in 1963 and then quickly moved right on to college at Grambling University in Grambling, La. There he studied education and public administration. There he also played basketball and baseball and stayed active in the bowling club and the Kappa Psi Epsilon Fraternity. He graduated with a 3.5 grade point average and received his first offer for teaching in Racine, Wis.

After graduation he married Barb, his longtime college sweetheart, in her hometown of Shreveport, La. Barb then almost what seemed like followed in Lee’s footsteps as she graduated from Grambling in 1970 with her degree in teaching. They both packed up and moved to Wisconsin where Lee ended up teaching high school English and Barb taught physical education.

Racine was the birthplace for all four of his children but shortly after his last son was born, he moved them to McFarland, Wis. Where he was offered another job as a high school principal. The city of Madison reviewed some of the work he had done at other places and quickly offered him a job working in the Human Resource Department for the district. Lee wanted to be more actively involved with students so he applied for an assistant principal job at Madison East High School. In no time, he was hired and began implementing what he had learned in college. He saw many bright, young and talented students graduate in the 25 years he spent there.

“Mr. Thomas was one of the only reasons why I kept coming to school,” said Andrea Gribble, one of his past students. “He made crazy jokes and was always trying to make all of his students laugh which made going to classes a lot less stressful and troublesome.”

One of his life long quotes that he stood by stated, “Life is a lot easier to go through when you’re smiling and having fun.” This stuck with all of his students and everyone else who cam in contact with him.

A memorial mass will be held at Mount Zion Baptist Church at 10 a.m. this Wednesday and the burial will be held at Saint Christine’s Cemetery.