Stephen Michael Thomas (Steve)

Stephen Michael Thomas (Steve) died at home in hospice care on March 27, 2024. He was born on November 27, 1951, in Knoxville, TN, the son of C. Clifton Thomas and Margaret Bible Thomas. He was the oldest child and had two younger sisters, Deborah Thomas Stillman and Kathy Thomas Williamson. The family moved to Alcoa, TN and Steve graduated from Alcoa High School in 1969. He attended Tennessee Technical University in Cookville, TN, and completed an associate degree in electrical engineering at DeVry University in Atlanta, GA, graduating first in his class and was hired by Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. He loved the Southwest and became an avid fly fisherman.  In 1976 he married his wife Victoria Harrison Thomas. They would have been married forty-eight (48) years on April 2, 2024. Their first child Clifton Michael Thomas was born in 1978 and a second son Christopher Robert Thomas followed in 1981. 

Steve had a varied career and loved to learn about new technologies and systems. He worked at Federal Express in Memphis, TN as an avionics engineer, with a stopover in Colorado Springs as a Zapmail Area Manager. He later moved Greensboro, NC and worked as a Senior Vice President of Technology and Security at United Guaranty Corporation and afterwards moved to Rocky Mount, VA to start his own business and finally served 6 years as the Technology Director for Franklin County.

Steve never met a car he didn’t like, and he liked a lot of them. He stopped counting at thirty (30) vehicles. From an early age he took things apart and put them back together and his parents’ driveway was a meeting place after school for friends needing help with their cars.  In his later years he visited the state parks in Virginia in his RV.

Steve is survived by his wife Victoria Thomas of Rocky Mount, son Cliff Thomas, wife Kaarn Thomas, and granddaughter Clarissa of Iron Gate, VA, son Chris Thomas, wife Cheri Thomas, and granddaughter’s Aubrey and Olivia Thomas of Raleigh, NC, and two sisters, Debbie and husband Steve Stillman of Albuquerque, NM and Kathy Williamson of Alcoa, TN.

A memorial in remembrance of Steve will be held at a later date. Arrangements by Flora Funeral Service and Cremation Center, Rocky Mount.