Thomas Kearns (April 11, 1862 – October 18, 1918) was an American mining, banking, railroad, and newspaper magnate.

He attended the public schools until he was 17, worked on his family farm, and engaged in the freighting business.

[1][3] In 1889 and his partner David Keith discovered the rich ore that became the famous Silver King Mine in Park City.

[1][3][2] They had four children: Margaret Ann (1892-1893), Edmund Judge (1893–1936), Thomas Francis (1897–1967), and Helen Marie (1899–1943).

[10] The party was endorsed by the Salt Lake Tribune—which Kearns and his partner David Keith purchased in October 1901—and was successful in Utah politics from 1904 to 1911.

[11][12] After finishing his term in 1905, Kearns resumed his work in the mining, railroad, newspaper and banking businesses.

Kearns and his partner David Keith purchased The Salt Lake Tribune newspaper in 1901 through a surrogate.

He died of a stroke eight days after he was hit by a reckless driver on the corner of Main and South Temple.

They built a grand chateauesque marble, granite and sandstone palace residence on Brigham Street, now South Temple.