Br. Daniel Thomas, O. P.

June 9, 1941 - December 18, 2020

Michael Anthony Thomas was a native Oaklander, the third of four children born to George Henry and Beatrice ( Lewis) Thomas. He attended Our Lady of Lourdes elementary school and then Bishop O’Dowd High School and loved playing in the neighborhood between Piedmont Park and Lake Merritt with his siblings Louis, Patricia and Kathleen.

A day of recollection held at St. Albert Priory, the Dominican House of Studies in Oakland, during his senior year prompted an awareness that he belonged inside that semi- cloistered life. After graduating from high school he applied to enter the Western Dominican Province as a cooperator brother. When the provincial called him and invited him to the novitiate in Marin County, Michael thought it was for a final interview and asked what he should bring. The provincial laughed and said, “My boy, bring everything you have, you’re going to be with us the rest of your life!” He received the habit of the cooperator brothers and the religious name of Daniel in 1959. In the over sixty years that followed he expanded the way the vocation of the lay brother was imagined.

While in studies in his early years in the Order, he was given many different roles: carpenter, nurse, librarian, cook. The friars recognized his creativity and Br. Antoninus ( William Everson) trained him in graphic arts. After making his solemn profession in 1967, he quickly became the director of Albertus Magnus Press. He went on to serve as a chaplain at Arizona State University and Southern Oregon State University. During a sabbatical year he participated in graduate studies to prepare the launching of a new ministry, Beyond Banners. He traveled extensively, offering workshops and lectures on liturgy, art and worship. In 1990 the province called upon him to revitalize St. Benedict’s Lodge, the Dominican retreat center in the Oregon Cascades at

McKenzie Bridge. During his fifteen years as director, he oversaw many capital improvements, the building of a new friary, expanded the number of groups using the facility and developed new retreat programs.

Finally, at a time when most men his age would retire, he responded to a call for friars to minister in Africa, and spent the next seven years in the Dominican mission in Kenya. He directed several construction projects, taught, and shared his love of God. Reflecting on his vocation as a brother in a community composed primarily of priests, Br. Daniel once wrote, “I see the brothers’ vocation as one that takes a real courageous person who doesn’t just follow the path of least resistance, but, guided by the Spirit, is willing to stand alone with God to do a job that needs to be done.” That you did, brother, and it was a job well done.

Br. Daniel passed away from complications associated with dementia, December 18. After a funeral Mass at St. Albert Priory, where the first stirrings to be a brother were born, he was buried in the midst of his brothers in the Dominican cemetery in Benicia, CA, on December 23. He is survived by his sister, Kathleen ( Thomas) Borges, nieces, nephews, and his Dominican brothers and sisters who will miss his humor, creativity and kindness.

To honor the memory of Br. Daniel, gifts may be made securely online in support of the education of Dominican brothers and priests at https:// www. op west. org/ br daniel-fr augustinememorial /.