Dr. Darlene Kay Thomas

DR. DARLENE THOMAS

Friends are remembering the remarkable Dr. Darlene Kay Thomas on the anniversary of her death on Aug. 23, 2024, in her Washington, D.C. home. She also spent time in her Mackeyville home which she owned for 50 years.

Born in Denver on Feb. 4, 1934, she was the only child of Herbert and Violet Thompson Thomas.

Dr. Thomas taught at Lock Haven State College (now Commonwealth University –Lock Haven) from 1970 to 1980. She was the only anthropologist on the faculty.

One of her courses challenged students to imagine life in a space colony, and she coordinated a conference at LHSC on the subject of space. She also brought a group of Native Americans to campus to model their traditions. She was a presenter at numerous conferences in the United States and abroad, including a conference at Harvard University.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

New York City drew her, and she lived there between earning her degrees. Her experiences included working at the United Nations and learning at the Art Students League. She studied under Theodoros Stamos, a member of the original group of Abstract Expressionists that included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko.

An oil painter, Dr. Thomas also enjoyed the challenge later in life of making “castaway collages” from discarded materials.

She never met a color she didn’t like.

A world traveler, she visited every continent except Antarctica, often traveling by hersef. She went by boat down the Amazon, rode a camel to a far-flung destination and back again met and talked with indigenous peoples.

Her field work included time spent among the Lakota on two reservations in South Dakota, and among the Inuit in the former Frobisher Bay region.

Her father, a professional firefighter and champion lightweight boxer, taught her to stand up for herself and her opinions. Throughout her life, she enjoyed having lively debates on the many subjects that interested her.

Dr. Thomas may be remembered for her interview show as Dimon on WBPZ radio. She is certainly remembered for sparking controversy and for opposing the East Nittany Valley sewer system. Throughout her life, she hoped to be a catalyst for change.

A cat person, she loved all animals from mammals to reptiles, birds, fish, even insects.

The author of several unpublished spy novels, she wrote a history of Mackeyville, an article on the importance of the Susquehanna River to Lock Haven and numerous research papers.

Her life in Washington, D.C. included regular walks to the Library of Congress, where she had her own shelf for her research books. Her largest area of interest was the concept of time in the ancient Roman Empire.

She left three books on her kitchen table when she closed the door to her Mackeyville house for what would be the last time. They were the classics, “Don Quixote,” “Arabian Nights,” and “Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents: Myth and Method in the Study of American Indians.”

Donations in her memory are suggested to the Nature Conservancy. They may be made online at preserve.nature.org or by mailing a check to The Nature Conservancy, Attn: Treasury, 4245 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203.