George Brinton Thomas Jr.

George Brinton Thomas, Jr. January 11, 1914 -October 31, 2006 George Brinton Thomas, Jr., 92, of State College, died Oct. 31, 2006, at Foxdale Village, of natural causes. THE EARLY YEARS George was born on Jan. 11, 1914, in Boise, Idaho, to George B. and Georgia Fay Goin Thomas. He lived in the Boise area until he was 12. His mother was one of the millions who died worldwide of the flu of 1918. She died eight days before George's 5th birthday. Some of the Depression years, George lived in a tent with a wooden floor and a coal stove with his father and step-mother, Lena Steward. They were poor, but he never felt that way. After Lena died in childbirth, George and his dad moved to the Spokane Valley where they both attended Spokane University. It was here that his father met his third wife, Mary Gertrude Johnson. She was the mother of George's two sisters, Mary Gertrude and Carol Louise. When Spokane University went bankrupt, George moved to Pullman to attend Washington State College. Here, he received a BA in 1934 and an MA in 1936 in math and math education. In Aug. 15, 1936, he married Jane Heath at her home in South Bend, Wash. They lived in Pullman for a year where he worked for Emerson's shoe store, saving money for further education. LEAVING THE NORTHWEST In 1937, George was accepted to the Ph.D. math program at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. He and Jane moved east and he began as a half time instructor in math at Cornell as he worked on his Ph.D. in number theory. He was a very popular instructor, having a nice style of teaching. PROFESSIONAL LIFE BEGINS In 1940, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.) had a professor on sabbatical and they hired George for a one year appointment. The people at MIT liked him, he liked the students, and he stayed until his retirement in 1978. While teaching at MIT, he was approached by Addison Wesley, a fairly new publishing company, to write a calculus book. The 1st edition of the Thomas Calculus book came out in 1952. Today the 11th edition is being used worldwide. His texts have been translated into many languages and millions of students have studied from them. They may not know George Thomas personally, but they know of him as the famous author of the calculus texts. (He also wrote "Probability and Statistics" with his friends and colleagues, Fred Mosteller and Bob Rourke.) He was active in many math organizations and helped start the Advanced Placement program. THE PERSONAL LIFE After his father was widowed a third time in 1941, he married Louise Cole, and in 1946, George's third sister, Peggy, was born. In 1952, George and Jane were fortunate to move to Concord, Mass. to a remarkable community called Conantum. Young associate professors from MIT and Harvard moved their families here. (Two Nobel prizes were won by residents of Conantum.) Here they raised their three children, Fay, Jean and Jim. There were many good times, ice skating on the Concord River, swimming in Walden Pond, raking the leaves at Thanksgiving with the graduate students invited out to be part of the holiday, playing Jotto, bridge or scrabble, and doing number and word puzzles. George and Jane purchased a small cottage on Cape Cod, and much of the calculus book was written there in summers. Sailing on Cape Cod Bay in the Sunfish would help George think about what he would write and the examples he would put in the book. Jane died in January 1975, of breast cancer, and in 1980, he married Thais Erving. They each had two grown daughters and a son. Fay, Jean and Jim were happy to have Susan, Melissa, Brad and their families become a part of the Thomas clan. They all remain close. In August 1983, Thais also died of breast cancer. After living alone for several years, George moved in 1990 to State College to Foxdale Village, a new Quaker Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC). It was a wonderful choice for him living in a college town, in a community of professors and retired professors. In his later years, George became very interested in religion. He and Jane attended the Unity Church. He and Thais embraced Christian Science. Foxdale respected his religious beliefs. He was in independent living for 13 years, in assisted living for three years and in nursing care for four weeks. George gave so much to every community of which he was a member. We all will remember him as a loving, kind, generous man, with an exceptional work ethic. THOSE HE LEAVES BEHIND He leaves behind daughter, Fay, and her husband, Ashok, of Glen Mills, daughter, Jean, of West Chester, and son, Jim, of Owls Head, Maine; Thais's children, Susan Hamill, and husband, Doug , Melissa Goggin, and husband, Keith, and Brad Waldron, and wife, Connie; and his sisters, Trudy Nelson, of Twin Falls, Idaho, Carol Hypes, and husband, George, of Greeley, Colo., and Peggy Turner, and husband, Grice, of Lubbock, Texas. He will be missed by his nine grandchildren, Kaj, Romy, Jay, Chloe, Theo, Sarah, Matthew, Max and Anjulie. And, he was fortunate enough to have five great-grandchildren, Justin, Brigette, Kylie Sue, Isabella and Melanie. We hope they will hear many wonderful stories about their remarkable great-grandfather as they grow up. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006, at 1:30 p.m., at Foxdale Village. All are welcome. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to First Church of Christ Scientist, 617 E. Hamilton Ave., State College, PA 16801 or to Foxdale Village, 500 E. Marylyn Ave., State College, PA 16801. Arrangements are under the direction of the Koch Funeral Home, State College.