In Memoriam
Jerome Francis Thomas
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
UC Berkeley
1922-2019
Professor Jerome (Jerry) F. Thomas, a distinguished air and water chemist, passed away peacefully at his Berkeley home, surrounded by his family, on November 7, 2019. He was a faculty member of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 1950 to 1987, at the University of California, Berkeley.
Jerry Thomas was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 8, 1922, and graduated with the B.S. in chemistry from De Paul University in 1942. On graduation, he immediately enlisted in the U.S. Navy and then graduated from Midshipman’s School at the University of Notre Dame. The Navy sent him to UC Berkeley for training in diesel engineering where he met, and after a whirlwind romance, married Rosemary Renner just before his departure to the South Pacific as the engineering officer of LST 991 (“Lady Bug”). LST’s were amphibious vessels built for landing troops and equipment. Over 15 months at sea Jerry’s vessel made six landings under artillery fire on the South Pacific beaches. His accounts of these landings were chilling to say the least.
When World War II ended he returned to UC Berkeley and in 1950 earned the Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry under the tutelage of Professor Gerald Branch. In 1948, while still a doctoral student, Jerry began working as a teaching assistant for the chemist Professor Wilfred Langelier, who together with Professor Charles Gilman Hyde, had developed a program in sanitary engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering. When Professor Langelier retired in 1955, Jerry Thomas joined the faculty of the College of Engineering and taught there continuously until his retirement in 1987.
During his tenure in the sanitary engineering group (now the Environmental Engineering Program) in civil engineering, Jerry Thomas taught and conducted research in a wide range of applied chemistry topics that included water, wastewater and hazardous waste treatment, corrosion, fire and explosions and plastics. His research addressed a wide range of practical problems that included the destructive decomposition of organic wastes, aromatic compounds in polluted atmospheres, odorous materials in water and the impacts of oil shale processing on natural waters. Because of his ability to apply chemistry to such a broad field of endeavor Professor Thomas was called on frequently and widely as a consultant and advisor by local, state and federal government agencies, and a wide variety of industries.
The way in which he taught his chemistry classes ensured that both undergraduate and graduate environmental engineering students learned how to use chemistry (as he did) to solve practical problems. He was famous for demonstrating many chemical principles in a hands-on way. Occasionally, the experiments (such as those of the explosive limits of organic vapors) did not go exactly as planned and created noises so loud that they caused anxiety among the more timid students.
Jerry Thomas served for 12 years as the chair of the Hydraulic and Sanitary Engineering Division of the Department of Civil Engineering and for many years was a member of the Berkeley campus Committee for Arts and Lectures.
Beyond all of these things Professor Thomas was a gentle, kind and considerate, renaissance man. When Professor Langelier lost his eyesight before he died, Jerry went to his house to read to him every day. He loved building and, besides constructing his house in the Berkeley hills, he built a family cabin in Grass Valley. A master carver, he led a freshman seminar in “Wood Sculpting and Related Art” in which one of the projects was Cal’s 11th bear. This bear named “The Greeting Bear” now resides on the seventh floor of Davis Hall and, replete with plumb bob and slide rule and regaled in cap and gown, proudly welcomes civil and environmental engineering graduates each spring.
David Jenkins
Slawomir Hermanowicz
Larry L. Russell
2020
Jerry Thomas was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 8, 1922, and graduated with the B.S. in chemistry from De Paul University in 1942. On graduation, he immediately enlisted in the U.S. Navy and then graduated from Midshipman’s School at the University of Notre Dame. The Navy sent him to UC Berkeley for training in diesel engineering where he met, and after a whirlwind romance, married Rosemary Renner just before his departure to the South Pacific as the engineering officer of LST 991 (“Lady Bug”). LST’s were amphibious vessels built for landing troops and equipment. Over 15 months at sea Jerry’s vessel made six landings under artillery fire on the South Pacific beaches. His accounts of these landings were chilling to say the least.
When World War II ended he returned to UC Berkeley and in 1950 earned the Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry under the tutelage of Professor Gerald Branch. In 1948, while still a doctoral student, Jerry began working as a teaching assistant for the chemist Professor Wilfred Langelier, who together with Professor Charles Gilman Hyde, had developed a program in sanitary engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering. When Professor Langelier retired in 1955, Jerry Thomas joined the faculty of the College of Engineering and taught there continuously until his retirement in 1987.
During his tenure in the sanitary engineering group (now the Environmental Engineering Program) in civil engineering, Jerry Thomas taught and conducted research in a wide range of applied chemistry topics that included water, wastewater and hazardous waste treatment, corrosion, fire and explosions and plastics. His research addressed a wide range of practical problems that included the destructive decomposition of organic wastes, aromatic compounds in polluted atmospheres, odorous materials in water and the impacts of oil shale processing on natural waters. Because of his ability to apply chemistry to such a broad field of endeavor Professor Thomas was called on frequently and widely as a consultant and advisor by local, state and federal government agencies, and a wide variety of industries.
The way in which he taught his chemistry classes ensured that both undergraduate and graduate environmental engineering students learned how to use chemistry (as he did) to solve practical problems. He was famous for demonstrating many chemical principles in a hands-on way. Occasionally, the experiments (such as those of the explosive limits of organic vapors) did not go exactly as planned and created noises so loud that they caused anxiety among the more timid students.
Jerry Thomas served for 12 years as the chair of the Hydraulic and Sanitary Engineering Division of the Department of Civil Engineering and for many years was a member of the Berkeley campus Committee for Arts and Lectures.
Beyond all of these things Professor Thomas was a gentle, kind and considerate, renaissance man. When Professor Langelier lost his eyesight before he died, Jerry went to his house to read to him every day. He loved building and, besides constructing his house in the Berkeley hills, he built a family cabin in Grass Valley. A master carver, he led a freshman seminar in “Wood Sculpting and Related Art” in which one of the projects was Cal’s 11th bear. This bear named “The Greeting Bear” now resides on the seventh floor of Davis Hall and, replete with plumb bob and slide rule and regaled in cap and gown, proudly welcomes civil and environmental engineering graduates each spring.
David Jenkins
Slawomir Hermanowicz
Larry L. Russell
2020
