Avis de décès de Gordon Thomas

FORT DODGE, IOWA - Gordon Thomas, 49, passed away Thursday (January 13, 2011) after a long battle with colon cancer starting in October of 2006, which metastasized to the liver in May of 2009. Funeral services will be 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Gunderson Funeral Chapel in Fort Dodge, Iowa.Gordon was born in Springville, N.Y. on July 1, 1961 and moved to Waterloo, N.Y. in 1968. At the age of 13, he began working for a mason contractor and worked as a mason apprentice through high school and college. Gordon graduated from Waterloo Senior High in 1979 and then went to the State University of New York at Delhi, graduating in 1981 with an Associate Degree in Civil Engineering Technology. After graduating he started his own masonry business called Concrete Specialties, which he owned and operated until 1991. In the late 80's, he began doing trees in the wintertime when it was too cold to do masonry. In the early 90's, he partnered with his brother, Maurice and started Thomas Brothers Professional Tree Care, with the help of his younger sister Arlayne, who worked for them for 13-1/2 years, with the goal of cleaning up after ice storms around the country in the winter and going back to New York to do masonry in the summer. The Halloween Ice Storm of 1991 in Iowa was the first ice storm that they cleaned up. Gordon and Maurice discovered that there was a great need for a tree service company in Fort Dodge, so they stayed.Gordon is survived by his significant other Cindy Angstrom Fort Dodge; sister, Mary Thomas, Livonia, N.Y.; brother, Maurice Thomas, Fort Dodge; sister, Arlayne Thomas, Skyland, N.C.; half brother, Roy Thomas, Calif., three nephews, Gavin Thomas, Fort Dodge, Christopher Chamberlain and Alex Newton both N.Y.; a niece, Heaven Myers of Fort Dodge; and two cousins, N.C.He is preceded in death by his parents, Paul and Arlayne (Folts) Thomas and grandparents, Gordon and Loraine Folts all New York.