Dorothy Nicolene Kvols Thomas

BLAIR — Dorothy Nicolene Kvols Thomas, 102, died May 19, 2021.

Born in Randolph, June 25, 1919, to Nick and Marie Kvols, Dorothy moved to Denmark with her family when she was six months old. She returned to Nebraska when she was five years old, where she was educated in a one room schoolhouse before attending and graduating from Laurel High School. After high school, Dorothy became the first woman from her church and the first person in her family to attend college. Originally, she attended Dana College, Blair, and she eventually graduated from the University of Minnesota before taking post graduate classes in comparative teaching methods at the University of Wisconsin.

For 47 years, Dorothy was an educator. She began as a teacher in various one room schoolhouses in Nebraska and on an Indian Reservation near Yankton, S.D. Later, she taught at several public schools in Wisconsin and Minnesota where she was named “Teacher of the Year” and became a school principal. As part of her interest in comparative teaching methods, she also taught in England, New Zealand, and Australia.

A proud lifelong member of the Lutheran Church, Dorothy, both before and after her retirement, tirelessly volunteered her services as a Sunday School teacher, a Sunday School Superintendent, a member of the Church Council, a greeter, a lay reader, a prayer counselor, and a hostess to all visiting ministers and missionaries. For 25 years, she was active in Community Bible Study, and, for 28 years, she traveled to multiple states and to Canada as a speaker for the Christian Women’s Club.

In 1944, Dorothy married a young air cadet named John Edward Thomas from Laurel. During their 33-year marriage, they had four children and operated a farm near Laurel. They later operated the Laurel Well and Plumbing Shop before moving to another farm in Dresser, Wis. Dorothy and John eventually moved to Duluth, Minn., where she was a teacher and school principal.

In 2008, at the age of 89, Dorothy moved to Blair, where she took up residence at the Crowell Home and later at the Good Shepard Lutheran Home. When the COVID pandemic started, Dorothy moved in with her daughter, Donna Jenson, who, with the help of her sister, Shirley Thomas, cared for Dorothy until her death.

Dorothy lived longer than anyone in the history of her family. She was preceded in death by her husband, John Thomas; her parents, Nick and Marie Kvols; her youngest daughter, Genelle Bonow; her grandson, Russell Johnson; her three brothers and their wives, Morris and Bonnie Kvols, Jens and Thelma Kvols, and Gene Kvols; John Thomas’ brother and his wife, Roy and Eleanor Thomas; and her nephew, Charles Thomas.

She is survived by her daughters, Shirley Thomas and Donna Jenson, Blair; her son, Edward Thomas, and his wife, Sue, Bakersfield, Calif.; 13 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandchild, and many nieces, nephews and friends.