2004 Headlines
Johnson School Community Mourns the Loss of Former DeanDean Emeritus David Thomas Dies on June 28, 2004 at the Age of 86 July 1, 2004, Ithaca, New York The Johnson School community mourns the passing of a former dean and good friend, Dr. David A. Thomas, who served as the Johnson School's sixth dean (1981-1984). Dr. Thomas passed away peacefully at his home in Venice FL on June 28. Dr. Thomas, who retired from the Johnson School in 1984, enjoyed a 31-year career with the Cornell School of Business and Public Administration (subsequently named the Graduate School of Management, and eventually the Johnson Graduate School of Management) as a professor of accounting, associate dean and finally dean. Joining the school in 1954, he had been a primary shaper of the institution from its early days. Dr. Thomas, a native Texan, earned his B.A. from Texas Tech in 1937 at the age of 20. As a captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps, he saw combat in the Pacific theater during World War II. He returned to Texas, earning an MBA and a CPA while teaching accounting at Texas Christian University, and went on to earn a PhD from the University of Michigan in 1949. Although courted by the faculty of MIT (and Berkeley in later years), Dr. Thomas chose instead to join Cornell's fledgling Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, attracted by Ithaca and the new school's promising future. Rising from associate professor, to full professor in a few years, Dr. Thomas became acting dean in 1961 and associate dean in 1962. He continued to teach and publish extensively during the 1960s and 1970s, and finally became dean in 1981. Under his leadership, the School underwent a critical period of self-evaluation, resulting in a new name - the Graduate School of Management - to reflect its new directive of educating managers for profit-making institutions. Dr. Thomas was also an active philanthropist over his career, a role he began in the 1950s and continued well into the 1980s. As administrator of the Charles E. Merrill Family Trust Fund, he oversaw the distribution of some $120 million to educational institutions, medical school, religious charities, and social-service organizations. About his longtime association with the Johnson School, Dr. Thomas had this to say on the eve of his retirement: "If I could have written the script, I wouldn't have changed a thing. I'm proud to have been associated with Cornell and with the School. It has been a precious experience." Dr. Thomas is survived by his wife Libby and daughter Annie. For More Information |
