Joab Thomas

Joab Langston Thomas (February 14, 1933 – March 3, 2014) was an American university administrator and scientist, who served as president of Pennsylvania State University, North Carolina State University and The University of Alabama.

Early life and education Thomas was born in Holt and grew up in Russellville, Alabama. His father, Ralph Cage Thomas, was the town's superintendent of education; his mother, Chamintney Stovall Thomas, was a music teacher. He was educated at Harvard University where he earned bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in biological sciences with a concentration in botany.

Academic career He served as a professor of biology at The University of Alabama from 1961 until his subsequent appointment as assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, followed by his appointment as vice president for student affairs in 1969. He was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa as a faculty/staff initiate in 1967.

Thomas took the position of chancellor at North Carolina State University in 1976; he was the school's ninth chief executive. While in office, enrollment at the university grew by 25 percent and surpassed 20,000 for the first time. He oversaw the establishment of the School of Veterinary Medicine, the Center for Economic and Business Studies, the North Carolina Japan Center, and the Caldwell Fellows scholarship program. A partial manuscript collection related to Joab Langston Thomas is housed in the NCSU Libraries Special Collections Research Center in D.H. Hill Library. In addition, Thomas Hall was named in his honor in 2009.

In 1981 Thomas returned to The University of Alabama to serve as the school's president, A notable hire of his presidency at Alabama was that of Ray Perkins to succeed Bear Bryant as the school's football coach in December 1982. Thomas later hired Bill Curry to succeed Perkins in 1987 when Perkins left to become coach of the National Football League's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He served as president of Pennsylvania State University from 1990 to 1995, where he oversaw the largest building program in the university's history and oversaw Penn State's entry into the Big 10 athletic conference.

Other accomplishments Thomas was a member of the academic honor societies Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi. Beginning in 1976, Thomas served on the Board of Directors of three agricultural research centers related to the World Health Organization: The International Potato Center (Peru), ISNAR (Netherlands), and the International Fund for Agricultural Research (CGIAR, in Kenya) were involved in research and outreach to provide better sources of food around the world. He traveled several times each year to meet agricultural authorities and visit research facilities where this work was being done. He received honorary doctorate degrees from The University of Alabama, North Carolina State University, Stillman College and Tri-State University.