George E. Thomas

George E. Thomas is one of the representative figures in the automobile business in the city of Grand Rapids, where he is vice-president of the Thomas-Krapp Motor Sales Company, which here has a large and modern establishment, the building having been erected for the purpose to which it is applied and giving to the company the best of facilities in both garage appointments and in sales and display rooms. The concern handles the celebrated and virtually omnipresent Ford products – the Ford and Lincoln automobiles and the Fordson tractors. The establishment of this progressive company is at 1838-42 Division avenue, south, and ranks among the best of its kind in western Michigan. Mr. Thomas was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, June 14, 1889, and is a son of Dr. Anthony Thomas and Josephine (Robertson) Thomas, the former of whom was for many years a prominent occulist and optician in Detroit, where his death occurred and where his widow still resides. After completing his studies in high school in his native city, George E. Thomas there took a course in a business college. In Detroit he thereafter held for several years the position of head executive in the accounting department of the Standard Accident Insurance Company, and in 1913 he joined the Ford Motor Company, with which he was employed for varying intervals in different departments. After having been for a time in the service department he was advanced to the position of distributor for the Detroit retail branch of the Ford Motor Company, his successful service in this connection having continued until 1923, when he came to Grand Rapids and established a new Ford organization, under the title of the Thomas-Krapp Motor Sales Company. He is vice-president of this company, as already noted, and Edmund Krapp is its secretary and treasurer. Mr. Thomas is an active member of the Passenger Car Dealers’ Association of Grand Rapids, and also of the Grand Rapids Motor Club and the local Association of Commerce. November 24, 1909, he was united in marriage to Miss Edna Forton, whose father, Charles Forton, is deceased and whose widowed mother resides in Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have two children: Stacey Charles, born November 30, 1911, and Walter A., born February 22, 1913.