[2] "Will" Thomas, the oldest of seven children, was born March 21, 1892, in Cato, the Piney Woods region of Rankin County, Mississippi.

His grandfather, William Thomas (1822-1890) was born in Connecticut and married the widow, Naomi Graham in 1867, a Choctaw.

He worked his way through Millsaps College, a small but recognized institution in Jackson, Mississippi, where he graduated with honors in 1912.

Thomas' ministry began in Danville, Mississippi as he simultaneously served many churches as a rural circuit-rider.

[4] He attended Seashore Divinity School from 1913-1915 and was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South by Bishop J. Atkins on November 28, 1915.

When America entered World War I in 1917, he went to Washington to join the army, which didn’t need chaplains, so he was referred to the navy.

Following indoctrination at the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, he received his naval appointment January 5, 1918, and was assigned to the USS Madawaska, a transport ship, which moved soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force to Europe and back.

When World War I was over, he planned to return to civilian ministry but was informed that, as a member of the regular navy, he was obliged to remain aboard the transport as it brought soldiers back, so he crossed the Atlantic a total of 28 times.

In addition to regular duties, he held services on the USS Reina Mercedes that was docked at the Academy and used as a disciplinary barracks.

It had been said that "He had prayed over and for more foreign dignitaries, of every shape, dress, nationality and race than any other Navy Chaplain.

His final sea duty, from July 1932 to May 1933, was aboard the USS West Virginia during the Great Depression.

He also addressed many civic associations, graduations, and regularly entertained midshipmen in their home as command chaplain.

[13] He brought to the pulpit of the academy some of the finest ministers in America: Dean Luther Weigle, Peter Marshall and Ralph Sockman.

[14] On December 7, 1941, Peter Marshall, visiting minister from the New York Presbyterian Church of Washington, D.C. asked Thomas if he might change his announced topic.

Peter Marshall then delivered a most famous sermon, "Rendezvous in Samarra" [15] about death and immortality to the assembled regiment of Midshipmen.

[18] Thomas would have preferred remaining at the Naval Academy but became the seventh chief of chaplains in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1945.

After the surrender of Japan, President Truman asked Thomas and the Army Chief of Chaplains, Luther D. Miller, to conduct a service of thanksgiving at the White House.

Upon retirement he and Mrs. Thomas moved to Lake Junaluska Methodist Assembly near Waynesville, North Carolina, where he resided until his death.

In October 1943 he received his naval commission, attained the rank of lieutenant in the medical corps and was wounded on Okinawa as a battalion surgeon with the first Marine Division.

He is buried on Chaplains Hill at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, where he was joined by his wife in 1990.