Abram Owen Thomas
1876-1931
Abram Owen Thomas was born on March 21, 1876 in Montgomeryshire, Wales. In 1882 his family immigrated to the United States and settled in Williamsburg, Iowa where he attended Williamsburg High School for three and a half years. Thomas married Marietta Rosenberger of Spencer, Iowa on August 29, 1900. She would later accompany her husband on expeditions and serve as a geology assistant.
In 1904, Thomas received his BS from the University of Iowa in Pharmacy and continued his education receiving a Masters of Science in 1909. For the following several year, Thomas worked as an instructor and assistant professor of geology at the University of Iowa. After a year of intense study, in 1923 he received his PhD from the University of Chicago and his dissertation was titled "Echinoderms of the Iowa Devonian". Upon graduation Thomas returned to the University of Iowa an associate professor; he was promoted to professor in 1927.
Professionally Thomas was a member of the Geological Society of America, the paleontological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Iowa Academy of Science. He was also a member of Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Kappa, and Gamma Alpha. Locally Thomas was involved in the Kiwanis Club in Iowa City, the Blue Lodge, and Acacia ranks of Masonry. He served in leadership roles and as president for several of the above organizations.
At the University of Iowa, Thomas served as the geologist on the 1918 Barbados-Antigua Expedition and the Fiji-New Zealand Expedition in 1922. These expeditions served as both educational trips for students yet also professional surveys of the location's geology and zoology. Large collections of specimens were brought back from these trips, many of which are still in the University of Iowa's collections.
In the fall of 1930, Abraham Owen Thomas became ill and died on January 13, 1931.
Thomas's students and colleagues remembered him for his character and teaching ability.
"He was not only the best instructor with whom I have ever come in contact but also a gentleman in every way"- Lowell R. Laudon October 2, 1930
"When Professor Thomas appeared before his classes and spoke with dry Welsh humor, and homely farmland phrases, the drab academic cloak of his subject fell away and his hearers caught the fire and inspiration of one who bowed before the majestic grandeur of the universe."
"The recognition he won in high scientific circles can never compare with the place he has held in the hearts of those whom he led through new vistas of understanding."
