- Date Of Birth: June 10, 1944
- Date Of Death: June 20, 2021
- State: Iowa
Frank Edward Thomas (77) of Des Moines passed away at noon on Sunday, June 20th, 2021 after a two-year battle with cancer. Frank was born June 10, 1944, in Helena, Arkansas to Marie J. Thomas and Samuel Jones, Jr., and raised by Marie and John Thomas.
His family moved to the South Side of Chicago as part of the Great Migration. Although raised in crushing poverty, he excelled in school. After graduating high school in 1962, he spent five years working in various clerical roles before entering Grinnell College in 1967. There, he majored in History and also served as a founding member of the campus organization Concerned Black Students.
At Grinnell Frank also met Sheena Brown; they married in August 1970. The newlyweds graduated and moved to Bloomington, Indiana to begin graduate school in 1971. Frank received his JD from Indiana University in 1974 and moved to Des Moines shortly thereafter. He served as an ombudsman and then worked in the Iowa Attorney General offices before leaving law practice in 1984. He then held a series of positions at Norwest Financial, Polk County, and the Iowa Department of Human Services.
Grinnell again became a major part of Frank’s life in 1991, when he returned to the college to take on a series of senior administrative positions related to campus planning, human resources, and diversity. He retired from the college in 2009 and took up a new position at Plymouth United Church of Christ in Des Moines, where he served as Pastoral Residency Coordinator until 2018. In that role, he served as a mentor for several associate pastors as part of the Transition into Ministry program.
A committed feminist and a quiet yet fierce proponent of racial and economic justice, Frank dedicated himself to charity and service throughout his life. He served on the Boards of Directors of the Iowa Conference of the United Church of Christ, the Young Women’s Resource Center, Iowa Student Loan, the Youth Law Center, and the I Have a Dream Program (now called By Degrees). While employed at Grinnell, he also mentored underrepresented students through the Posse Program and held positions in the Grinnell Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the college.
The middle child of three siblings, Frank was a natural mediator and a gifted confidant. His coworkers trusted him implicitly, and his nieces, nephews, and mentees fondly regarded him as a surrogate father. He was a supportive father to his two sons and his daughter-in-law, whom he quickly embraced as his own daughter. A devoted husband who readily balanced household chores with his numerous professional obligations and volunteer activities, in 2020 he celebrated his golden anniversary with Sheena.
Frank always surrounded himself with books and loved philosophical conversations about the human condition. His friends and family remember him fondly for the stacks of pancakes he served on weekend mornings, his delicious pies, and his convivial scotch tasting parties.
Frank is survived by his wife, Sheena; his children, Jolyon and Kimberley, of Philadelphia; and his son, Akili, of Pasadena.
