University of Puget Sound remembers past president as inspirational leader, storyteller

Ronald Thomas is being remembered at the University of Puget Sound as an inspirational leader and educator who loved storytelling,

Thomas, who served as the university’s 13th president from 2003 to 2016, passed away peacefully at his Vashon Island home on Monday. He was 74.

During his tenure, Thomas led the most ambitious fundraising effort in the university’s history, raising $131.6 million to support campus programming, facilities and student financial aid, the university said in a press release.

In his time as president Thomas also oversaw the renovation and completion of several prominent buildings on campus, including the science center, Harned Hall, Weyerhaeuser Hall, the Athletics and Aquatics Center and Commencement Hall, which was later renamed Thomas Hall in honor of Thomas and his wife, Mary.

Thomas was described as “an insightful scholar, masterful writer and inspirational leader” who was well-loved on campus and affectionately called “Ron Thom” by students, according to the university press release.

“Ron gave full measure of heart and soul to Puget Sound. Every member of our Logger community has been touched by Ron’s commitment to this university, and his tireless work to support our students, alumni, faculty, staff, parents, donors, trustees and friends,” said current Puget Sound President Isiaah Crawford in the release. “His vision not only transformed our physical campus; it also enriched our spirit by strengthening our bonds with Tacoma, the broader community, and most of all, our alumni throughout the world.”

Reflecting on his retirement, Thomas told the News Tribune in a 2016 interview that when he visited the University of Puget Sound he knew, “This was a place that was more summoned by the future. This was a place that felt like the future. I could feel that in the people. It’s in the water here.”

“The best days of the University of Puget Sound are still ahead of us,” he said. “I’m excited to see what comes next.”

Thomas is predeceased by his father Robert and Aunt Susanne and survived by his wife Mary, his cat Finn, his mother Doris, sister RuthAnn, brother-in-law Richard, nephew Stephen and his wife Betsy and their children Erin and Seamus; Uncle Richard; Cousin Nancy; niece Antonia, her husband James and their daughter Lucy; and sister-in-law Carolyn.

Thomas had a love for words, stories

Thomas approached the world and his work “with the soul of a poet and a keen ability to connect people to ideas and to each other,” according to an obituary shared by the university.

“Ron loved creating, sharing and hearing stories in every conceivable form—from the Victorian novels he studied to the lyrics of poets Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan,” the obituary said. “He could converse about complex narrative structures, construction blueprints and long-range financial planning as easily as French wines, Tudor-Gothic architecture and key plot points from ‘Succession.’”

Prior to embarking on a career in academia, Thomas worked for a multimedia production company. He was an English professor at the University of Chicago from 1982-1990, then a fellow in the humanities at Harvard University from 1991-1992. Thomas worked as a professor, department chair, vice president and interim president at Trinity College in Connecticut from 1991-2003 before he was named president of the University of Puget Sound in 2003, according to the obituary shared by the university.

As president Thomas served on the boards of the American Council on Education, the Annapolis Group, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times Higher Education Cabinet, the Independent Colleges of Washington and the President’s Council for NCAA Division III, the university said in a news release.

Thomas continued to be an active member of the higher education community after leaving the university, most recently as a member of the Board of Trustees of the College of Idaho and the Vashon Center for the Arts.

When he delivered his 2004 inaugural address, Thomas said he saw higher education as more than a simple training ground for career-hungry post-adolescents, but instead “as a cauldron for leadership, a great national asset through which to create and test ideas, to discover and expand knowledge, to critique and transform our culture.”

Early life and education

Born in Orange, New Jersey, Thomas graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in English literature from Wheaton College in 1971, followed by a master of arts and Ph.D. in English and American literature from Brandeis University in 1978 and 1983.

Thomas’ scholarly work focused on the role of the novel in the Victorian age through modernity, and he authored hundreds of essays, op-eds, speeches, letters and books, including “Dreams of Authority: Freud and the Fictions of the Unconscious” (1990) and “Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science” (1999).

A memorial service will be held at the University of Puget Sound at a date to be determined.

In lieu of flowers, Thomas’ family requests that donations be made to the Ron and Mary Thomas Endowed Scholarship or the Ronald R. Thomas Endowed Scholarship in Writing at University of Puget Sound, and to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.

Gifts to the University of Puget Sound in Thomas’ memory can be made online at pugetsound.edu/restrictedgifts.