wfn.org | Carl Thomas, Well-Known for Social Ministry, Dies

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 8, 1999

CARL THOMAS, WELL-KNOWN FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY, DIES
99-274-JB/SB***

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Carl E. Thomas, 69, former chief
executive officer, Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, died Nov. 1 at
Bon Secours Hospital in Grosse Pointe, Mich., following an extended
illness.  Thomas was hailed as the "dean of social ministry
organizations" by the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Detroit Free Press
reported.
     Services were held Nov. 4 at First English Lutheran Church, Grosse
Pointe Woods, Mich.
     Thomas began work with Lutheran Social Services of Michigan in
1973. Under his leadership, the organization grew significantly.  It
went from serving three Michigan cities on a $2 million operating budget
to providing $96 million a year in services to 25,000 people in 54
Michigan cities.
     Thomas  resigned from Lutheran Social Services of Michigan in July
because of failing health.
     He was also a former chair of the board for Lutheran Immigration
and Refugee Service (LIRS), a cooperative agency of the ELCA, Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the
Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  It was established by
Lutheran churches in the United States to carry out the churches'
ministry with immigrants and refugees.
     Thomas served on the LIRS board of directors from 1988 to
September 1999.  He was board chair for the last two years of his term.
     Thomas leaves "an outstanding legacy of leadership and service,"
said Ralston H. Deffenbaugh Jr., LIRS president.
     "Carl always kept the focus on what to him was the fundamental
strength of LIRS, being 'part of the servant church of the servant
Lord,'" Deffenbaugh said.  "He gave so much wisdom to LIRS and to me
personally."
     Thomas held many leadership positions in the Lutheran social
service field, including membership on the ELCA's Design Task Force on
the Church's Social Ministry Through Homes, Institutions and Agencies
from 1983 to 1986.  He also was a founder and former chair of the
Lutheran Resources Commission-Washington, Washington, D.C., and founded
Lutheran Resources Mobilization Inc. and Lutheran Housing Coalition.
     Thomas was born in Detroit.  He received a bachelor's degree from
Wittenberg
University, Springfield, Ohio, in 1952, a master of divinity degree from
the former Hamma School of Theology, Springfield, in 1955, and a
master's degree in social work from Ohio State University, Columbus, in
1961.  In 1966, he was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree
from Wittenberg, a college of the ELCA.
     Following his graduation from Hamma and ordination, Thomas
remained in Springfield from 1955 to 1963 to serve dual positions:
assistant pastor of Fifth Lutheran Church and associate director of the
Oesterlein Home for Children.  In 1963, he moved to New York City to
become associate secretary of the Board for Social Ministry of the
former Lutheran Church in America (LCA).  He was executive secretary of
the LCA social ministry board from 1966, until he became president of
Lutheran Social Services of Michigan.
     Thomas is survived by his wife of 44 years, Patricia, and two
daughters, Susan Bay and Deborah Sloss, and one brother, the Rev. Harvey
S. Peters, Madison, Wis.
     Memorial contributions may be sent to the Carl E. Thomas Endowment
Fund, Lutheran Social Services of Michigan Foundation, Detroit.
[***Susan Baukhages is communications director for Lutheran Immigration
and Refugee Service, headquartered in Baltimore.]

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