Edwin J. Thomas; Goodyear Executive

Edwin J. Thomas, who rose from clerk to chairman in a five-decade career at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. died Tuesday night at age 87, the company announced this week.

He had been in good health, but was suffering a blood clot on the brain received after a recent fall and died in an Akron, Ohio, hospital.

Thomas joined Goodyear as a part-time clerk at company headquarters in Akron in 1916 while he was a senior in high school.

He became a full-time stenographer after graduation and stayed more than 55 years. He was elected president in 1940 at age 41, chief executive officer in 1956 and chairman in 1958. He retired from the company in 1964 and from the board of directors in 1971.

Most of his Goodyear career was spent in Akron, but it included stints in Los Angeles as a plant superintendent, and in Great Britain, where he was managing director of the company’s operation there.

It was during his tenure in 1955 that Goodyear undertook a $7.5-million expansion of its Los Angeles plant.

In 1912, he received the Horatio Alger Award from the American School and Colleges Assn. for typifying the American tradition which enables a youth to overcome humble beginnings and achieve success.

He was a director of the University of Akron, where one of the world’s premier performing arts halls is named in his honor.