Charles Sparks Thomas (September 28, 1897 – October 17, 1983) was a

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

administrator. He served as

Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...

between May 3, 1954, and April 1, 1957. Thomas was born in

Independence, Missouri Independence is the fifth-largest city in Missouri and the county seat of Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson County. Independence is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metro ...

, and he attended the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

and

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he served as a naval aviator. He joined the Eisenhower Administration in 1953 as Undersecretary of the Navy; later that year, he designated an Assistant Secretary of Defense. During the 1930s, Thomas worked for

Foreman and Clark Foreman & Clark was a department store chain headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, California, United States.City of Los Angeles, Office of Historic Resources''Newsletter'', July 2009 Founded in 1909, the chain had 90 stores by 1957, from Californi ...

. Thomas became president of

Trans World Airlines Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with F ...

on 2 July 1958, and served until 28 July 1960. He subsequently was the president of the

Irvine Company The Irvine Company LLC is an American private company focused on real estate development. It is headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with a large portion of its operations centered in and around Irvine, California, a planned city of more ...

, which developed sprawling

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

suburbs, through 1966. Thomas was director of several large corporations, including Lockheed.

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National Defense University 1897 births 1983 deaths United States Secretaries of the Navy Trans World Airlines people United States Under Secretaries of the Navy {{Missouri-politician-stub