Home County: Clay
Term of service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: October 1991 - July 1995
Judge Elwood Lauren Thomas was a native of Council Bluffs, Iowa[i]. He graduated in 1954 from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, with his bachelor of arts.[ii] He continued his education at Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa, where he was an active member on campus.[iii] He was the editor-in-chief of the Drake Law Review[iv] and was elected a member of the Order of the Coif.[v] He graduated from law school in 1957.[vi]
After passing the Iowa bar, Thomas practiced law in Sioux City and Webster City, Iowa, until 1965,[vii] when he took a teaching job at the University Of Missouri-Columbia School of Law.[viii] For more than a decade, Thomas taught law students numerous courses, such as evidence, trial practice, insurance and taxation. Thomas received the law school’s Distinguished Faculty Award in 1976.[ix] In 1978, he left the University of Missouri to become a partner with the Shook, Hardy & Bacon law firm in Kansas City, Missouri.[x]
Thomas was an active participant in many professional associations, in which he served as faculty or as a chair. He was a member of the Supreme Court of Missouri’s Committee on Civil Instructions and served as a reporter and chair for that committee at various times from 1975 through 1991.[xi] On two separate instances, The Missouri Bar called upon him to chair a task force on evidence to revise Missouri Evidence Restated. He served as a faculty member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy from 1982 to 1983 and as a faculty member for the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, for 12 years.[xii] Thomas received numerous accolades for his contributions to the legal profession during his lifetime, including the Missouri Bar Foundation’s Spurgeon Smithson Award in 1989, the Charles Evans Whittaker Award from the Lawyers Association of Kansas City,[xiii] and the Ten Year Faculty Service Award from the National Judicial College.[xiv] He was also a co-editor for a two-volume litigation guide that was part of the Missouri Practice Series in 1991.[xv]
In September 1991, Governor John Ashcroft[xvi] appointed Thomas to the Supreme Court of Missouri. He was the 106th judge of the Court.[xvii] While on the bench, Thomas was reunited with two of his former students, Judge Ann Covington and Chief Justice John Holstein.[xviii]
Judge Thomas died, while a judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri, in 1995.[xix]
[i] Bob Watson, “Missouri High Court Judge Dies.” Jefferson City Post-Tribune, (1995), 1-6.
[ii] Will Sentell, “Missouri Court Mourns Loss of Admired Judge.” The Kansas City Star, (1995), A-2 - 7.
[iii] Will Sentell, “Missouri Court Mourns Loss of Admired Judge,” A-2 - 7.
[iv] “Obituaries: Thomas”. Post-Tribune, Jefferson City, Missouri (1995).
[v] “Obituaries: Thomas.” Post-Tribune, Jefferson City, Missouri (1995).
[vi] Will Sentell, “Judge Named to Court.” The Kansas City Star (1991).
[vii] Arthur David Peppard, “Thomas Picked For Supreme Court.” Missouri Lawyers Weekly (1991).
[viii] Arthur David Peppard, “Thomas Picked For Supreme Court.” Missouri Lawyers Weekly (1991).
[ix] Will Sentell, “Missouri Court Mourns Loss of Admired Judge,” A-2-7.
[x] Arthur David Peppard, “Thomas Picked for Supreme Court,” Missouri Lawyers Weekly (1991).
[xi] “Elwood Thomas Dies: Authored Key Supreme Court Opinions,” Missouri Lawyers Weekly, (1995), 18-20.
[xii] “Obituaries: Thomas.” Post-Tribune, Jefferson City, Missouri (1995).
[xiii] Will Sentell, “Judge Named to Court.” The Kansas City Star (1991).
[xiv] “Obituaries: Thomas.” Post-Tribune, Jefferson City, Missouri (1995).
[xv] “Obituaries: Thomas.” Post-Tribune, Jefferson City, Missouri (1995).
[xvi] Terry Ganey, “Ashcroft Fills Bench,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1991).
[xvii] Paul Sarris, “Friends Say Farewell to ‘Gentle Giant,” Columbia Missourian (1995).
[xviii] Paul Sarris, “Friends Say Farewell to ‘Gentle Giant,” Columbia Missourian (1995).
[xix] Associated Press “State Supreme Court Judge Dies at 65,” Columbia Daily Tribune (1996).
Biographical information authored by Ms. Hannah Siegel, 2017, Columbia College, Columbia, Missouri.