James Russell Thomas

1945 - 2020

JAMES RUSSELL THOMAS James Russell Thomas (Jim Thomas), 74, son of S. Joe Thomas (d. 2007) and Virginia (Barbo) Thomas (d. 1970), died at his home on Waldo Mesa on July 16, 2020. Jim, a Buddhist, received a green burial that same day in the Madrid Cemetery during which a double rainbow appeared in the northwestern sky. Jim was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado on August 22, 1945 and grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He attended Wood-Gormley Elementary School and Harrington Junior High School and graduated from Santa Fe High School in 1964. During his high school years, he was the drummer in the Santa Fe dance band, the Velvetones. Jim joined the army in 1967 and served at listening posts in Taiwan and Ethiopia. In 1969, he took an overseas discharge from the Army traveling through Indonesia to Australia where he lived for a year.On return to the US, he earned a BA in History and Spanish from New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1972 and a Master's in Latin American Studies in 1974 from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. While in Arizona, Jim worked for a Tucson TV station as a news photographer, as a historian at Tubac Presidio State Historic Park in Tubac, Arizona, and as the head of the bicentennial reenactment of the 1774-1776 Expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza. He met his first wife, Peggy Huber, during the de Anza reenactment; they were married for three years. Jim returned to the Santa Fe area in 1978 and bought land on Waldo Mesa near Madrid, NM. It was here that he began working at his real passion, wood carving. In 1980, he married Beth Eutsler, and they set up a household on the Mesa for several years. Jim also had a passion for metal forging and collecting metal resources. During his lifetime Jim collected many tons of metal and beautiful old trucks - some of them may even run! Jim carved primarily in the New Mexico Spanish Colonial style. He carved furniture, doors, and corbels for many of Santa Fe's high-end residences. But one of his most notable legacies is that he carved all the corbels and doors and handcrafted much of the furniture at the Pecos National Historical Park. Jim had a long relationship with Patricia Dolan who passed away in 2009. His final partner was artist Barbara Marigold with whom he also shared a passion for old books. They spent nearly ten years together, and she built a house next to his. He is survived by his brothers and their wives, Ronald and Janet Thomas (Socorro, NM), Richard and Carole Thomas (Madrid, NM), and William Thomas and Cathleen Hapeman (Mount Rainier, MD), and by many nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts, and uncles. In lieu of flowers, donations may be given to the Madrid Cemetery.