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Love of people helped drive local columnist

Most readers know Bruce Thomas largely through his stories about people that he relayed in countless columns he’s written for the Tribune Chronicle over the years. But it was his love of people that propelled Bruce to find and share those stories.

Tribune Chronicle readers lost the popular columnist, and his family (and the area) lost a caring, compassionate man when Bruce Thomas passed away Oct. 9 at his Howland home. The columnist and retired social worker was 88 years old.

It was mankind as a whole that had inspired Bruce in his life’s work. He delighted in learning about and in helping people. That was evident to his family who knew him best and watched him work interviewing and asking questions for stories he would go on to share on the Life pages of this newspaper. But even before he found his flair for writing about people, he had spent years delving into people’s lives and lending a hand when he could.

You see, Bruce’s first career was as a social worker in Pittsburgh, working in family and children services and for a veteran neuro-psychiatric facility. Later he served as executive director of the Multiple Sclerosis Society in western Pennsylvania and then as head of a United Way chapter in western Pennsylvania. His devotion to the field of helping people didn’t end there. He also was a charter member of the National Association of Social Workers and served on many boards working to ensure social welfare and community service for all. Outside of his professional field, he also served as a member of Rotary International and even the Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors.

Bruce’s daughter, Alice Cervantes of Philadelphia, recently shared some thoughts about her father’s involvement and love of people.

“He could talk to anybody. As a teenager, it was embarrassing,” she mused, but now she looks back and admires him for it.

That’s perhaps why he loved his second career, serving as a Tribune Chronicle correspondent writing his regular column.

“Once, he discovered an interesting license plate on a car in a parking lot. He waited for the guy to come out — and he interviewed him and did a piece on it. It’s what good journalists do,” Cervantes said. “He probably was always the most interesting guy in the room, but you would never hear about him (from himself).”

Bruce’s first column was published Oct. 13, 2006, in the Tribune Chronicle. Coincidentally, his final column was published Oct. 12, 2018, just one day shy of his 12th anniversary.

All of Bruce’s service to people in need and his continued community involvement confirms for me one thing. The legacy he leaves behind is not just one about the simple tales Bruce shared regularly for 12 years on the pages of your Tribune Chronicle. It proves his devotion was not just to writing about people. Rather, it was to the people themselves.

A celebration of Bruce Thomas’ life will be held 11 a.m. Nov. 3 at the First Presbyterian Church in Warren, where the family will receive visitors at 10 a.m.

He is survived by his wife, Sara Alice Folger Thomas; his son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Michelle Thomas of Johnston; his daughter and son-in-law, Alice and Richard Cervantes of Philadelphia; and grandchildren Alex of Howland and Marco of Philadelphia; and step-grandchildren, Brett Shipley, Keith Shipley and Courtney Collins.

In lieu of flowers, his family suggests contributions be made, in his memory, to the Shepherd of The Valley in Howland or the First Presbyterian Church of Warren.

Arrangements were handled by McFarland-Barbee Family Funeral Home in Warren.

Rest in peace, Bruce Lorrey Thomas.

April 4, 1930 – October 9, 2018.

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