Obituary of William R Thomas

Dr. William "Bill" Ronald Thomas, 73, of Columbia, entered into rest, March 18, 2015 at the Agape Hospice House. He was born in Charleston, SC on May 28, 1941 as the first child of the late Dorothy Lee Johnson and John Powhatan Thomas, Jr. He attended public schools in Atlanta and Decatur, GA and graduated from Decatur High School in 1959, where he served as Captain of the Decatur High School Marching Band. During his high school years, he was active in the 4-H Club, The Order of DeMolay as well as the Boy Scouts. He worked two years for First National Bank of Atlanta before entering Georgia Tech, from which he graduated in 1965. At Georgia Tech, he was a member of the Georgia Tech Band, the Air Force ROTC Band and Pi Sigma Epsilon Professional Fraternity in Marketing and Selling. Dr. Thomas attended Georgia State University from which he received both his Masters and Doctorate degrees in Business Administration in 1966 and 1971 respectively. Dr. Thomas was a professor at the University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business for 36 years until his retirement as Professor Emeritus in 2003. As a teacher for many years, Dr. Thomas taught more than eight thousand students; and in his later years he was teaching some of his former students' children. Following his retirement, he and his wife traveled extensively to Alaska, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, Panama, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Canada, Machu Picchu in Peru, and the Galapagos Islands. During his career in marketing and business education, Dr. Thomas was active in many profession-related organizations as a participant and as a leader. He was Faculty Advisor to the college chapter of Pi Sigma Epsilon at South Carolina for well over a decade, for which he received the fraternity's national top faculty advisor award twice. He held several positions on the fraternity's National Council, including that of National President for two terms in 1978-1980. And he was honored by the Fraternity by being selected as one of only ten recipients of its Gold Medallion. In 2009, he was presented the fraternity's Honorary Life Membership Award, being the 23rd recipient of its highest honor. Dr. Thomas was active, locally and nationally, in Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI). He served as President of the local Columbia affiliate of SMEI and was its Executive Director for six years. He was honored by SMEI with its National Educator of the Year Award in 1984. Dr. Thomas served as a business and marketing consultant to a number of firms and organizations, and was a member of several professional and honorary organizations including Beta Gamma Sigma, Alpha Kappa Psi, Mu Kappa Tau, Omicron Delta Epsilon and the Fulbright Association. As avocations, Bill was an avid do-it-yourselfer, engaging in many remodeling and woodworking projects over the years, and was an accomplished grill-master as well, dubbed by his granddaughter as the "Baron of the Barbeque." He was also known as "Mr. Fix-it" by many who sought his advice and assistance. He was married to Elizabeth (Amick) Jones Thomas for 15 years; survived by his two daughters, Karen and Liz Thomas by a first marriage; two step daughters, Terri Hill and Susan Wooten (Terry); seven step grandchildren and six step great grandchildren. He has a brother, John P. Thomas, III and his wife Lou; sister, Susan Thomas Burney and her husband Rod; as well as numerous nieces and nephews. A funeral service will be held at 5:00 P.M., on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at Thompson Funeral Home at Greenlawn Memorial Park, 845 Leesburg Road, Columbia, SC 29209. The interment will be held at 2:00 P.M., on Sunday, March 22, 2015 in Crest Lawn Memorial Park, 2000 Marietta Boulevard NW, Atlanta, GA 30318. The family will receive friends from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, on Friday, March 20, 2015 at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Dr. William R. Thomas Scholarship Fund, a fund established in the mid ninety's by one of his former students, Mr. Joe Sakuri of Japan. Memorials should be sent to the fund in care of the Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, 1014 Greene Street, Columbia, SC 29208.