Cleo Thomas

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Cleophus Thomas Jr. (born June 20, 1956 in Sylacauga) is an attorney, and CEO of the A. G. Gaston Corp., the holding company for the Booker T. Washington Insurance Company.

Thomas is the son of Cleophus Thomas Sr. He grew up in Goodwater and Anniston and, after graduating from Anniston High School in 1973 he entered the University of Alabama.

In 1976, with the backing of The Mallet Assembly and other groups, Thomas successfully challenged the Machine-backed candidate for president of the Student Government Association. He was presented the college's Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, in recognition of excellence in character and service to humanity. He went on to study at Oxford University in England on a Marshall Scholarship, where he completed a bachelor of arts in philosophy, politics and economics in 1980. He then completed a law degree at Harvard Law School in 1982 and began a year-long clerkship with J. Foy Guin in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Thomas was appointed to the University of Alabama Board of Trustees in 1983 and served until resigning in 2002. During his tenure on the board he was critical of the hiring Malcolm Portera as chancellor without formal search process.

Thomas practiced law as a member of the firm of Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville in Anniston. He joined the Gaston Corp. as general counsel in 1992. In 1996 Thomas served as Distinguished Practitioner-in-Resident at the University of Alabama School of Law. In the 1998 general election, Thomas was nominated as a substitute candidate for Alabama Senate District 12 after incumbent Doug Ghee withdrew from the race. He lost narrowly to Republican Del Marsh.

Thomas has served on the corporate boards for AmSouth Bank, Protective Industrial Investment Company. He has also served as a trustee of the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Alabama Humanities Foundation, and the Alabama School of Fine Arts. He chaired the board of the Donoho School in Anniston. He served as president of the Kappa Alpha Psi Foundation of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; as treasurer of the Southern Regional Council of Atlanta, Georgia; and as director of the Lillian E. Smith Foundation in Clayton, Georgia. He also serves as superintendent of the Sunday School at First Missionary Baptist Church.

Thomas and his wife, the former Carla Ann Newbern, have three children: Cleophus III, Caleb, and Phillips.

References

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