Thomas is an octogenarian, gardener, oil painter of landscapes and religious art. He was born during the depression era, grew up in the Ohio countryside until the second world war when his father, Clarence, was drafted into the U.S. Navy to serve in the South Pacific. He moved to Pittsburgh with his mother, Mildred, and brother, David, to be near her parents and siblings.

Following the war, Thomas and family returned to Ohio. He studied for the Catholic priesthood, abandoned that pursuit, joined the U.S. Army, eventually married and enrolled in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Case-Western University in Cleveland, Ohio. Thomas served as a social worker in public welfare, a VA medical center, a VA domiciliary, on Indian reservations in Nevada, and in service to reservations in Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.