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We are deeply saddened by the recent death of Alan Thomas, preeminent Canadian adult educator, founding member of the Carold Institute, and its President from 1999 until 2005. In the days following his death, numerous colleagues and friends expressed their appreciation and admiration for the man who had so inspired them. A selection of their recollections appears below.

DR. ALAN MILLER THOMAS (II) (PhD, C.M.)

Closed his weary eyes and slept one last time on Friday, August 14, 2009. Predeceased by his beloved wife of 49 years, JoAnne Elton Thomas; survived by his sister Joan McCrodan (John); devoted to his children Alan M. Thomas Jr., Matthew Andre Elton Thomas (Mairead Sheerin), Rachel Anne Thomas (Tal Hebdon), Martha Okot Thomas (Ted Rush) and adoring granddad to Jeffrey, Justin, Mary and Alison, Joseph Michael and Cormac, Celeste, and Drew and Jordan and dearest friend, Doreen Uren Simmons. Alan was a man of great accomplishment, vision and integrity, respected and admired by his peers, colleagues, friends and loved ones. Within his chosen field of Adult Education he was a decorated scholar and a whole-hearted champion of what he described as a cause: to empower through education. The profound impact of his life’s work will be deeply felt within the world of Adult Education and no doubt far beyond. Among his awards and honours was his cherished Order of Canada (1982). His passion, energy and devotion to all that he loved were unwavering. To his colleagues, he was a leader, a visionary and lived by his own words, continuing to learn throughout his 81 years. To his friends, he was charming, engaging, worldly and humble. To his family, he embodied love, trust, support and openness. He was a great man and will be very sadly missed.

Alan Thomas was a Canadian adult educator, who like Lester Pearson, always had a world view. Upper Canadian to the core and global Canadian adult educator to the kernel. I knew him, yet did not know him. The Alan I knew was always expanded by conversations about him that I had with others. He was a renaissance man in adult education and many have contributed anecdotes that attest to the breadth of his interests.

Several times I asked Alan to tell me the details of the day when he was host to Marshall McLuhan, who was visiting UBC. It was at Alan’s home in Vancouver where the famous phrase, “The medium is the message” was first pronounced. I wished, and still wish, to develop the claim that the phrase arose from an adult education discussion:

“The medium is the message.”

This is the most widely quoted aphorism of Canadian origin of all time. Coined by communications consultant Marshall McLuhan, it is known from Toronto to Timbuktu. McLuhan first uttered the now-famous formulation on the evening of July 30, 1959, at a reception in the Vancouver home of educator Alan Thomas, following a symposium at the University of British Columbia on the subject of music and the mass media. McLuhan first included the aphorism in his book Understanding Media (1964) and thereafter punned (or “funned”) with it: “The medium is the mess-age,”

Adrian Blunt

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I think the “medium is the message” was coined when McLuhan and Thomas were walking along West 4th Ave in Vancouver.

Roger Boshier

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I met him first in 1978 Down Under, and after I arrived at OISE in 1980 he’d always josh me in some way about being an Aussie. But always good heartedly and as a precursor to see how I reacted to one of his latest ideas or vexations about societal learning. Very quickly I learned to develop fast and provocative answers back, which prompted some fast repartee — What a combination of principled, determined, respectful and articulate effort!

Liz Burge

PS Anyone remember his always having a ‘pocketbook’ paperback in his coat pocket?

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I recall one story that he told me about the time that Roby Kidd went with a young Alan Thomas to meet Alan’s father to talk to him about Alan taking a job as an adult educator. Alan was a post WWII graduate of the University of Toronto. His Father had, as many of us do, grand ideas about careers for his bright young son. Adult education was not what he would have thought of as his first choice. The meeting was a success. The combination of Alan’s enthusiasm for this new kind of way of being in the world and the silver tongue even then of the young J Roby Kidd combined with a father’s wisdom opened the door for adult education for Alan. And my goodness how well he stepped through that door.

Budd Hall
Director, Office of Community-Based Research University of Victoria

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I remember Alan well as a graduate student attending my first Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE) conference in the mid1980s. He was articulate, passionate and a wonderful mentor who took notice of neophyte grad students and encouraged them…I interviewed him a few years ago for a project that was documenting the rise and fall of adult education organizations in BC and was struck again by his insight and thoughtfulness and also the many ways he contributed to the field.

Shauna Butterwick
Professor, UBC

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Alan was, of course, enormously important to me, personally, as my Ed.D. supervisor. He was one of the rare adult education faculty members at the time that nurtured my interest in media policy issues and got me through the process. I shall be forever grateful to him for that.

Rose Anne Dyson Ed.D.
Consultant in Media Education
Chair: Science for Peace (Media Working Group), University of Toronto

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Alan was a pillar of our adult education world. I wish there was a way to communicate to his family what a loss this is to so many of us…

Allan

Allan Quigley Professor of Adult Education Department of Adult Education Xavier Hall St. Francis Xavier University Antigonish Nova Scotia

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I have been reading with interest, all the tributes to Alan Thomas, and the discussions about doing more to recognize his contribution to Adult Ed.

I also have been feeling compelled to tell a short story of my connection to Alan Thomas. He was never my professor at OISE, but I knew of and respected his work, ran into him often and chatted with him on occasion.

My work, however, is with fire service education for the Province of Ontario, and thus I have become quite acquainted with many firefighters. Many years ago, prior to my going to OISE, I met a young and memorable firefighter at the Toronto Fire Service. He was a lead member of the HUSAR team (Heavy Urban Search and Rescue) and I worked with him in the capacity or preparing educational curricula for specialized fire service response to emergencies. Alan had an unusually good understanding of educational process (which I have learned not to take for granted among firefighters), and we collaborated quite effectively.

After I was nearing the end of my doctoral work, he became aware of my studies and asked if I had ever met his dad. Never in all my days at OISE had the thought crossed my mind, that THE Alan Thomas could be his dad. But immediately the younger Alan’s understanding and respect for education made sense.

The next time I met Alan Thomas (Sr.) at OISE, I told him of this coincidence, and we shared a little laugh. I have sent my condolences to Alan (Jr) and his family, as I know that their dad/granddad will be a real absence from their lives.

Rose Barg
Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal

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It is highly appropriate that Alan Thomas’ name be attached to some important CASAE event/function/award, as he was a major influence on hundreds of current adult educators, and a defining influence for many. His book, Beyond Education, spoke to social learning quite early on.

(Alan) mentored me, and others, in innumerable ways. One example: while I was a doctoral student at OISE, I wanted to explore some issues of communication, new media and social change. It’s hard to credit now but at the time there was no such course in any department at OISE. Through a notice posted in the department, I recruited other students to be fellow explorers, and seven of us came together and shaped a semester-long “program”, “inviting” some pretty-heavy hitters inside and outside the academy to meet/talk with us. In passing and early in the process, I mentioned this initiative to Alan—whose eyes lit up. He offered to arrange matters so that our efforts had the status of a course for which we could all get credit….probably as an independent reading course for each of us, if I remember properly, and let us use his name to legitimate various arrangements/invitations. All of us who participated would say that our learning via that route was among the most intense experiences we had in our entire program.

Alan didn’t just respond to students when we approached him or just those he supervised; he would approach students with ideas, resources, suggestions, and just for conversation about their/our work. And he kept in touch with some long after they graduated.

Alan’s special interest was people learning as members of organizations, particularly social action or voluntary organizations (as distinct from employing organizations) and as citizens (as distinct from employees, or registered students of an educational institution). While any CASAE recognition will be wonderful, the recognition would more reflective of him, if tied in some way to the issues he cared about most deeply.

Elayne Harris

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Alan was on my thesis committee while I was working on my M.A. in Special Ed. and was also on my committee for my doctoral thesis in Adult Ed. As his obituary in the Globe and Mail stated, he was always “charming, engaging, worldly and humble”…not to mention knowledgeable (on almost any subject). Over the last twenty years, whenever I would contact Alan, he would be unfailingly helpful in whatever it was I was requesting, and, as well, would never fail to ask about my daughter (I was pregnant while finishing my Ed.D.) and my husband (who also had Alan on his thesis committee). Because of these qualities and more, he is certainly a man who won’t be forgotten.

Della Clarke

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Thanks [all] for supporting the fund at the Carold Foundation. I know how close that Foundation was to Alan’s heart and how well the current board is acting as stewards of his trust.

D’Arcy Martin

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A big piece of my life involved Alan as a fellow worker. The work we have shared has seemed worthwhile and has always been fun. In recent years I have valued and appreciated being part of the Carold Board with Alan and other leaders in the adult education movement. I share a feeling of great loss with all who loved Alan.

Gordon Selman
Member and former member of the Board of Directors of the Carold Institute