William Burke (Bill) Thoman, Sr. passed away Feb. 12, 2010 after a long and successful life and brief illness.

He was born and raised an only child to Carl and Eva Thoman of New Castle, Ind. on May 5, 1915. He came through Dallas with his mother on the train for the first time in 1939 after visiting an uncle in Pearsall, Texas. While on the rear platform of the train leaving Dallas at night for Indiana, he saw the revolving lights of Pegasus atop the Mobil Oil Building and told his mother, "Dallas looked like a pretty nice place to live." He quit his job working for his father in the grocery business, gathered up some silver dollars and was back in Dallas two weeks later looking for work.

He took his civil service exam and began employment with the Civil Aeronautics Administration (later to become the Federal Aviation Agency) for 36 years and was Assistant Chief of tower operations at Love Field and Chief at Addison Airport before retiring in 1977. He was in charge of JFK's airplane in and out of Dallas on that fateful November day at Love Field.

"Pop was always tickled that he had almost been retired longer than he had worked and made more money in retirement than he did employed while working for Uncle Sam," said his son, Lew Thoman.

He was the sole surviving player of his high School basketball team in New Castle, Ind. that won the state championship in 1932 when he was a junior and captain of the team. He is credited with making the winning shot at the buzzer to beat Muncie, Ind. in the regional playoffs and continued on to win the State of Indiana Championship game with a much larger high school from Indianapolis. This gave the small New Castle team its only state championship until 2006.

He is a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. He and his son Lew returned to the Hall of Fame in 2007 to donate the trophy he won 75 years earlier. After all this time, he still receives letters of support and some not so supportive from fans and detesters alike regarding the legitimacy of his last-second shot in 1932. Both sons, Lew and Burke, attended his 75th high school class reunion in 2008 and were pleased and surprised by many people in New Castle still recognizing his name and place in Indiana basketball history.

"No, the movie Hoosiers was not based on Pop that we know of, although there were many similarities for which we cannot claim credit," Lew Thoman said.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 66 years, Betty Lou Thoman and is survived by sons Lew Thoman of Houston and Burke Thoman of McKinney; grandchildren Tracy Thoman of Dallas, Claude and Scott Thoman and Catherine Stewart of Mobile, Alabama, Jennifer Wisinski of Dallas and Laura Gleaves of Austin and six great-grandchildren. He wishes to acknowledge thanks for the caring and companionship from the staff and many friends he enjoyed at Legacy Place, his last senior living center until his death.

Due to a family member having previously made plans for the next three weeks, celebration of life will be held at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 19 in the sanctuary. A private inurement will be held for the family preceding the service. Greeting and refreshments will be available in the Atrium after the service and friends are encouraged to stay and remember Bill's life.

The family requests in lieu of flowers that donations to Haiti be made through the Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church. Please contact Assistant Pastor Fran Shelton 214-368-6348 extension 134 for further instructions.

Feb. 12, 2010

Courier-Times, The (New Castle, IN), February 18, 2010

William Burke Thoman Sr
Dallas, TX

Thoman Sr, William Burke Age 94, of Dallas, TX, died on February 12, 2010.

Dallas Morning News, The (TX), February 16, 2010