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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