Allen Lee Thomas

Allen Thomas, the outdoor writer for The Columbian for four decades, passed away in his sleep on 11/6/2025 of leukemia. He was 73.

Allen, born George Allen Thomas, was born Oct. 2, 1952 in Vancouver. He was the son of George and Edith Thomas of Camas. He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Sherrie (Blake) Allen. Allen and Sherrie attended Camas Public Schools from kindergarten through high school graduation. While life separated them for a while, they found themselves together again and married in 2006.

Allen is survived by one son, Ryan, of Tualatin, and a sister, Pat Carlson, of Castle Rock. Other survivors include grandsons Wesley and Jack Thomas of Tualatin, and bonus children Stepheni Phillips of Hillsboro, Shawn Sanders and Tony Stach, both of Vancouver, and bonus grandchildren Sydney Moon and Glen Phillips, also of Hillsboro.

After he graduated from the University of Washington in 1975, go Huskies!, Allen

joined the Columbian as an intern in 1974, he then left to do a joint internship for The Columbian and Longview Daily News covering the 1975 session of the Washington State Legislature.

In the spring of 1975, he returned to The Columbian as a general assignment reporter. He then covered education and Vancouver city government until becoming the outdoor writer in June 1978.

While in his long tenure with the Columbian, he covered all manner of Northwest natural resource agencies including the Washington and Oregon departments of Fish and Wildlife; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Gifford Pinchot National Forest; Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area; Washington State Parks; National Marine Fisheries Service and the four Columbia River treaty tribes.

He wrote both news and features. A typical month might include covering multiple meetings of the Columbia River Compact as it adopted fishing regulations, while also doing features on local fisheries or trails in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. He even dabbled in sports reporting.

The Columbian compiled about two dozen of his hiking stories into a book entitled "Hiking in Southwest Washington and the Columbia Gorge, printed the publication and sold 5,500 copies, making Allen a successful published author as well.

Allen loved fishing. His favorites were Buoy 10 salmon season in August at the coast and then following the fall chinook, catching them in the Vancouver and Camas areas. He caught many a fall chinook between the BNSF railroad bridge and Davis Bar. His other fishing passion was to chase after walleye in the Maryhill, Wash., and Boardman, Ore., areas of the mid-Columbia River. He also enjoyed hunting pheasants and other upland game birds each October in Garfield and Whitman counties of southeast Washington. As bird hunting declined in Washington, he made several trips for pheasants in South Dakota.

He won four writing awards during the middle of his career from the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association. His Thursday Outdoors page in The Columbian also earned an honorable mention in the Outdoor Writers Association of America contest.

Thomas retired from The Columbian in August of 2017, although wrote for the paper as a free-lancer until January 2025. He also was a board member and newsletter editor of the Proebstel Neighborhood Association after retirement.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Clark County food bank in memory of Allen Thomas.