Owen Thomas, Writing Project Founder, Dies

Owen Thomas, an English professor and co-founder of the UC Irvine Writing Project, a nationally acclaimed program to retrain teachers in writing instruction, died Wednesday of lung cancer at his vacation home in Ft. Bragg, Calif. He was 60.

Private funeral services were conducted Friday in Ft. Bragg on the Mendocino County coast. A private memorial service at UCI will be held at 3 p.m. Friday at the University Club.

Thomas had been on the UCI faculty since 1975, when he was appointed a professor of linguistics, education and English. Although he took a leave of absence last fall because of his illness, he was still a permanent faculty member at the time of his death.

In 1978, Thomas and another UCI professor, Carol Booth Olson, co-founded the UCI Writing Project. Modeled on the Bay Area Writing Project and the California Writing Project, the UCI program involves a summer institute to help elementary, high school and college teachers to learn better methods to teach writing to their students.

While at UCI, Thomas also worked on programs to help children learn through computer use. He designed and published several computer-software programs for children. Two of the programs created jointly by Thomas and his wife, Irene, won awards from Learning Magazine.

In 1972, Thomas’ colleagues in the National Council of Teachers of English named him “distinguished lecturer” of the year. In 1966, he was appointed as a Senior Fulbright Fellow in Yugoslavia.

A native of Norfolk, Va., Thomas earned his doctorate in American literature at UCLA. He taught 15 years at Indiana University before coming to UCI. He was the author of the book “Transformational Grammar and the Teaching of English.”

Survivors include his wife, five children, two sisters, and his mother. Memorial contributions may be made to the Owen Thomas Memorial Fund for Teacher Education and sent to Nanci Stark, Office of Teacher Education, UC Irvine, Irvine, Calif. 92717.