Robert Walsh Thomas, 94, a Joliet attorney, died at his home Thursday, Jan. 18, of congestive heart failure. The longtime Joliet resident specialized in labor law, working with clients such as a local manufacturer of tar and fiberglass products, and the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Mr. Thomas moved to Joliet with his mother in 1910. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1931, he joined Donovan, Bray & Gray, a Joliet firm with a distinguished list of attorneys including Thomas Donovan, who was Illinois lieutenant governor from 1933 to 1937, and George M. O’Brien, a congressman from 1972 to the mid-1980s. Mr. Thomas retired in the early 1980s as senior partner of the firm, then called Thomas, Wallace, Feehan & Baron. In the late 1960s Mr. Thomas was chairman of the board of the Joliet Mass Transit Authority, and during the late 1970s he was the first layman to be chairman of the board of trustees of the University of St. Francis in Joliet. Survivors include his wife, Annabelle; a daughter, Ann Bodach; a son, Robert M.; and four grandchildren. Funeral services have been held.
