Nathaniel Thomas

Dr. Nathaniel (Nate) Thomas, age 84, passed on Saturday, November 7, 2020. Nate was born on February 26, 1936, in Mound Bayou, Mississippi and was a longtime resident of Chicago, Illinois. Nate was the 1983 recipient of the Reginald Jones Award for his work in furthering the careers of more minorities in the STEM fields than anyone in the US. During his tenure at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Nate was the leading recruiter of minorities in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) professions and produced more black engineers than all the other engineering schools in the state of Illinois combined. Nate developed and established a pioneering pre-engineering program called Early ID (for Identification) to identify talented underrepresented minority students capable of earning a STEM degree. His trailblazing students went on complete their degrees and to make significant technological contributions in telecommunications, aerospace, manufacturing, architecture, computers, software, robotics, digital image processing and more. While at the Illinois Institute of Technology, he served in several positions including: Director of Admissions, Director of the Early ID program and Assistant VP of External Affairs. Nate also served as the Vice Chancellor for student services in the Chicago community college system of 7 colleges and 140,000 students. Nate has appeared on 116 radio talk shows and made 70 television appearances on programs including Jeopardy, The Sale of The Century, Someone You Should Know with Harry Porterfield, Common Ground on CBS, The Vernon Garrett Show, The Ed Sullivan Show and Black Life on NBC. He holds a PHD in Higher Education Administration from LaSalle University, a Master of Arts in Vocational Guidance from Roosevelt University and Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Technology with a minor in Business Administration from Roosevelt University. “I was as good an athlete as I was a scholar. Very nerdy. I loved doowop music and any other vocal harmony music,” he wrote. Nate attended Fisk University and was a singer with the John Work Chorale. He was the captain on the Fisk baseball team and played basketball before temporarily leaving school and joining the United States Marines. In the Marines, he served as a Corporal and the bass singer with the Four Palms. The music group won first place in the worldwide All-Navy Talent Show while in the US Marine Corps, made history as the first African American group to win the worldwide competition and the group performed twice on the Ed Sullivan Show. Even at age 84, which Nate jokingly referred to as “being in overtime,” Nate was actively involved in helping others. Nate was a graduate of Wendell Phillips High School and recently served as the president of the Wendell Phillips (Class of 53) Alumni Association. At the time of his passing, Nate was actively working on a proposal for a program that would to begin introducing 3rd grade students into the STEM pipeline and continuing through college graduation. He is survived by his five children, Rhonda Thomas, Barbara (BJ) Thomas, Dwayne Thomas, Jennifer Chalmers and Susan Thomas Smith. He is preceded in death by his parents Aaron and Marie Thomas, Nate’s daughter, Taunda Thomas, and two brothers: Aaron (Brown) Thomas and Jerry Thomas. Nate has 12 grandchildren, six great grandchildren, four nieces, two nephews and a host of friends, relatives and mentees he affectionately calls “MY Students.” Arrangements entrusted to Chicagoland Cremation Options of Schiller Park, Illinois.