Born on 13 November, 1922 at 959 East 21 Street, Erie, PA. (Locale of picture). Parents, Claud Edward and Estella Davis Thomas, sister Lucille, age 18, brother Frank, age 9. Spectacles at 2 2 , Kindergarten and First Grade at McKinley on East Avenue. Visits with Aunt Bess Thomas (later Coover) and to Pittsburgh to Aunt Ottie and Uncle Norris Wellman=s and to Grandmother Annie G. Cook Davis Morse=s farm at Findley Lake, NY. Sister Lucille goes into nurse=s training and soon marries Dr. John Hobson. Weekends at cottage on Chautauqua Lake. Frank graduates from Erie Academy.

The family moved in the summer of 1930 to a run-down house which we termed the ?Ranch@ at Tillotson=s Corners some five mile south of Union City, PA. Great years roaming the woods, reading books, learning many building and mechanical skills as we remodeled the premises. The family had lived in Union City (five miles away) before the move to Erie and Dad had lived near Tilllotson=s as a boy, had gone to school in a building now on our property.

Restarted the second grade at Bloomfield Consolidated School in Lincolnville. After a couple years of being a misfit, enjoyed school very much, graduating from high school in 1941 as valedictorian. Met James Bell, lifelong friend, during the summer preceding third grade. Together we edited a newspaper in the 7^th and 8^th grades and the yearbook as seniors. Brother Frank left the Ranch for an artist=s career in New York City in the 1940s.

After a summer job at Talon zipper plant in Meadville, in the fall of 1941 entered Edinboro State Teachers College, determined to become a teacher. Embarked on a math/science curriculum. Met Bette Edna Miller, fellow freshman. Summer job with Fry Construction in road building. Became Editor of the campus newspaper, the Spectator. During my third semester on 10 November, 1942, joined the Enlisted Reserve Corps. At the end of the semester we were called to active duty. Reeder Hall at right was the men's dorm back in '41, now houses the administration offices.

Entrained in Erie for induction at Indiantown Gap, PA. Troop train to St. Petersburg for about four weeks of basic. Placed in Army Air Corps and shipped to clerical school at Ft. Logan, CO. Assigned as Pfc Thomas to 311^th Fighter Squadron (P 47s), 58^th Fighter Group, 5^th Airforce. Served as message center clerk, telephone/teletype technician. Promoted to Cpl. Spent twenty four months in Pacific Theatre on twenty some basesBCamp Doomben, Australia; Saidor, New Guinea; San Roque, Leyte; Okinawa; Ie Shima, to name a few. Became engaged via mail to Bette Miller. (With me in photo are three WWII buddies and tentmates: Larry Osborne, Bob Stein and Jerrry Shapiro)

Bette and I were married on Feb. 2, 1946. Left for UofM at Ann Arbor; Bette soon joined me. Housed at Willow Run Village in Ypsilanti. Worked summers for Hollister-Wood Lumber Company. Bonnylin born on Aug. 15, 1949. Completed B.S. with secondary teaching certificate in 1948. Completed Masters in Physics in 1949.

In Sept., 1949, joined staff of Wayne High School as physics and math teacher. Moved to Norwayne Village in Wayne. Leslie Edward (Butch) Thomas born 5 Dec., 1951. Served as audio-visual coordinator, sponsor for several classes, President of Wayne Federation of Teachers. Taught driver=s education summers and in the adult evening and weekend program. Moved into Wayne Memorial H.S. when it opened. Attended several NSF summer institutes for science teachers. Moved to Nancy Park (1530 Jay St.) outside of Ypsilanti. During several summers earned a Masters in Mathematics at UofM. Tapped for principal at proposed second high school which became John Glenn. Accepted offer from EMU instead.

Joined staff of the Physics and Astronomy Department at Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, as Assistant Professor in Sept., 1959. Taught sophomore and intermediate physics for the next twenty years. Developed a number of astronomy courses, supervised the sophomore labs and helped write the lab manual. Taught in several NSF summer institutes. Helped inaugurate EMU=s first computer, an IBM 1620. Coded computer programs in Fortran for drawing star charts. Was promoted to Associate Professor.

Spent three years (1967-70) as science and math coordinator on EMU=s USAID Somalia project. The team established the College of Education at Afgoi to train HS teachers. Butch spent one year at Monte Rosa school in Switzerland. On R&R visited Tycho Brahe=s observatory on Hven off Sweden/Denmark. Fended off recruitment efforts by CIA as Somalia government collapsed into the Russian sphere (temporarily). Spent a month of terminal leave in the Algarve region of Portugal.

On return to the States, moved into apartment in Glencoe Hills. Purchased lot and mobile home in Tamarack Park near Key West, FL. Bonny marries Raymond Richards. Les (Butch) marries Sue Moncur, moves to California but soon enlists in Navy and spends 24 months in Vietnam. At EMU continued to develop star program. In summer of 1977 went as short-term science advisor to EMU=s curriculum project in Swaziland, another USAID contract. Retired and moved to Key West. In 1979 returned to EMU to accept appointment on the Swaziland team. Wrote science and math textbooks for Kingdom=s elementary schools for nearly five years. Bette returned to Key West. Mary Metler joined the Swaziland Team in 1981. (Our venue in Swaziland was the National Curriculum Centre, near Manzini on the map.)

In 1983 returned to States. Taught part time at EMU while Mary finished her career back with Wayne-Westland schools. Mary and I were married October 2, 1984. While summering at the cottage in the Keweenaw, first Mary then Clint were offered positions at this private school in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Mary supervised English instruction in the primary and secondary programs. Clint taught physics, math and computer science in the tertiary program. Made two visits to the Galapagos Islands.

In 1986 to 1989 we were Indiana University professors on the MUCIA project at the campus in Shah Alam, Malaysia. Mary taught English and study skills and Clint taught physics, supervised the computer lab, did some programs for the Malaysia Astronomical Society and some workshops in AutoCAD at a technical college. Holidays took us to Borneo, Thailand and Australia and back to visit friends and colleagues in Swaziland. The mosque above is near our apartment in Shah Alam. Not all our students wore chadors but this group in my computer lab did so. (We called them chadors but the more proper term is probably hijab.) While in Malaysia we often vacationed in Australia. At left we're 'taking a camel to dinner' near Alice Springs. We had dinner, not the camel. We retired for the last time in 1989 and left Malaysia.

Returning to Mary=s cottage on Lake Superior in the summer of 1989, we bought a little travel trailer and set out to find a home in the sunbelt. We now spend some nine months in a >sea cottage= on an island outside of Port Isabel, TX, and near the end of the causeway to South Padre Island. Finding summers in Texas a bit hot, we spend several months at our seasonal home on Lake Superior in Michigan=s upper peninsula. (The aerial shot at left looks over Agate Harbor into Lake Superior. Our cottage is on south shore of South bay. At right is our 'sea cottage' just off the Brownsville, TX, shipping channel.) Son Leslie suffered a fatal heart attack on 2 Jan., 1994 in his apartment in Los Angeles where he was an appeals specialist for Los Angeles County. Bonny, Mary and I fly to LA.

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