Obituary of William L. Thomas

William L. Thomas, Jr. passed away at his home in Melbourne, FL at the age of 99 on March 25, 2021.

He was preceded in death by his wife Margaret.  He is survived by his daughters Wendy Breithaupt (Keith) and Sue Adams (Bruce, preceded), son James (Monica), two granddaughters Amy Carver (Chris) and Leah Duncan (Jason), step-granddaughter Rebecca Giles (Joseph), great-grandson Jonathan Thomas Duncan, and two step great-grandchildren Gunner Lowery and Shelby Giles.

For his entire life, he carried with him a family characteristic of strength through kindnesses as borne by his parents from Mathews County and Norfolk, Virginia. As a child, he was taught that kindness was a virtue. He carried that to all corners of the earth on all continents in over sixty countries from his WWII days as an officer in the Army Air Corp in India-Burma, to his overseas travels working as a civilian for the US Navy, to his personal travels with his wife and family.  Patience, kindness, gratitude and love shined so ever humbly in his presence.  From whatever walk of life those who met him were received with a calm reassurance.

During his career as a civil servant primarily at Naval Station Norfolk, he grew in responsibility to oversee the planning and programming for facility maintenance and management for the US Navy Atlantic Fleet covering the US and Europe.  Upon his retirement from Civil Service, he was regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities of large scale, multi-operations facilities management.  After retiring from his work with the Navy, he was a consultant with Applied Management Engineering (AME) in Virginia Beach, VA assisting federal, state and local governments, universities and other institutions on programmatic facilities management.

His love of family will endure time.  Services will be a private family ceremony.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to your favorite local family service organization.