Old Missoula

A Local Rhodes Scholar – James R. Thomas – 2^nd Rhodes Scholar from Montana

James Thomas, Butte, Summoned

James R. Thomas, 75, retired treasurer of the Montana Power Co. died Wednesday morning in St. James Hospital following a lengthy illness. The family home is at 644 W. Silver.

He was prominent in educational and civic affairs of Butte.

Mr. Thomas, who was a Rhodes Scholar graduate of Oxford University, served for 25 years as a member of the Montana State Selection Committee for Rhodes scholarships. He took a special interest in education and scholarship work and helped many young people in their academic careers.

Born May 9, 1884, in Milwaukee, Wis., Mr. Thomas attended grade and high schools in Milwaukee and attended Beloit college in Wisconsin before coming to Montana in 1904 to teach school at Carlton, south of Missoula. Later he worked for the Missoula Mercantile Co., and the First National Bank in Missoula.

Rhodes Scholar

In 1906, he successfully passed the examination for a Rhodes scholarship and was appointed to take up residence at Oxford in the fall of 1907. He was graduated from Oxford University in 1910 with a degree in geology, and he returned to England in 1929 to receive his B. A. and M. A. degrees in geology from that institution.

During his early residence at Oxford, he was a classmate of T. E. Lawrence, famed as “Lawrence of Arabia,” in Jesus College.

Following his 1910 graduation from Oxford, Mr. Thomas was named to an expedition to South America under the direction of the British Museum and Oxford University. He spent the period from 1910 to 1912 on geological surveys in Chile, Peru, and Bolivia.

Returns to U.S.

In 1912 he returned to the United States and, while waiting for the formation of another expedition, took a “temporary” job with the Montana Power Co. That job led to 33 years’ service, interrupted by a three-year period in the sugar industry between 1920 and 1923.

Mr. Thomas first started with the power company on construction of the Thompson Falls hydroelectric generating plant and associated transmission lines. In 1916, he was transferred to the general office of the company in Butte to work on statistics and reports.

After successive positions in the power company’s accounting department, he took a position as assistant treasurer of the Cuba Cane Sugar Corp., serving three years with that firm in New York and Havana, Cuba. He returned to Butte in 1923 to become auditor for the power company and in 1925 became assistant treasurer. Mr. Thomas was elected Treasurer of the company in 1933, serving in that capacity until his retirement on June 1, 1949

Active in Chamber

Mr. Thomas was a member of the Butte Chamber of Commerce and at one time served as national councilor of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce representing the Butte organization. He was chairman of the board of control for Butte High School scholarship loan funds at one time, and was a past president of the Butte Rotary Club.

He was a member of the Mother Church, First Church of Christ Scientist, and served as a reader in the Butte church in 1942. He was a member of Summit Valley Lodge No. 123, AF & AM; Montana Commandery No. 3, Knights Templar; Bagdad Temple of the Shrine, and the Missoula chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. He held memberships in the Controllers Institute of America and Montana Society of Engineers and was a member of the Butte Country Club and Butte Town Club.

He married Lucille M. Jones of Missoula, who preceded him in death. Mr. Thomas is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Dorothy Dill of Seattle, and a son, George Thomas of Tiburon, Calif.

The body is at the Richards Funeral Home pending arrangements.

The Obituary above appeared in The Montana Standard on August 29, 1959.

 

An older brother to James Thomas was also an important early educator in Missoula.

J. Franklin Thomas, Ph.D., also graduated at Beloit College, and became the principal of Missoula County Free High School in 1907. He served for 2 years at the new High School building in Missoula and also lectured at the University of Montana. He then did graduate work at Columbia University majoring in Sociology and lectured at Columbia for 2 years. He became the director of Social Science School at the University of Oregon branch at Portland, Oregon in 1919. He later resigned there and moved to NYC where he became a director of the Orphan Asylum Society of the city of NY.