Stephen Good Thomas, a longtime attorney in private practice and community leader in the Chagrin Valley, passed away Oct. 19 while on a family outing at Glen Lake, Michigan. He was 78. The apparent cause of death was a heart attack.
Mr. Thomas, who moved from Moreland Hills to Chicago in May 2024, is survived by his wife, Corrine Nunley Thomas, whom he married on August 28, and by children Stephanie K. Thomas of Cleveland and Emilee Y. Thomas (Ricky Crain) of Michigan City, Indiana, and grandchildren Max and Gus Crain of Michigan City. He is also survived by Loren Nunley, Lauren Nunley and granddaughter Ruby Nunley, all of Chicago. His first wife, Debra Janit Samad, died July 22, 2022.
Mr. Thomas was a trial attorney and general practitioner, specializing in professional negligence actions, commercial and business transactions and conflicts in probate administration. He argued more than 60 cases before Ohio and federal appellate courts during his career, including three before the Ohio Supreme Court.
He operated Stephen G. Thomas and Associates, LPA, in Chagrin Falls between 1998 and his retirement in 2024 from full-time employment. Between 1981-1997, he was a partner in Thomas & Boles in Chagrin Falls, and from 1976-1981, he was an associate attorney and law clerk with Ellis B. Brannon, Esq., in Cleveland.
Mr. Thomas was a member of The William K. Thomas American Inn of Court, which is named in honor of his late father, a federal judge for the Northern District of Ohio between 1965-2001. Like other Inns of Court nationwide, the Cuyahoga County chapter regularly gathers attorneys, judges and other members of the local legal community for dinners and professional-improvement programs. Mr. Thomas spoke to the group after his father's death.
Mr. Thomas was elected to five terms as a Chagrin Falls Township trustee between 1989-2009, served as treasurer of the Federated Church in Chagrin Falls and was a board member of Shelter the People Cleveland, a non-profit that develops and funds facilities in Cleveland for residents who need permanent or transitional housing that is safe and dignified.
In 2010, Mr. Thomas received the Chagrin Falls Alumni Association's Community Service Award. He was honored for having helped create, and then serving as president of, the Chagrin Falls Educational Foundation, established in 1988 to expand academic horizons in the local school district, and the Chagrin Foundation for Arts & Culture, founded in 2007 to attract theater, music and cinema programs and performances to the Chagrin Valley, in part by affiliating with the famed Chautauqua Institution in Western New York. The alumni award also lauded Mr. Thomas for being a founder and past president of Downtown Chagrin Falls, which encourages residents to shop at local stores rather than on the Internet.
A member of the Chagrin Falls High School class of 1965, Mr. Thomas received degrees from Middlebury College in 1969 and the Case Western Reserve University College of Law in 1977. He wrote on the LinkedIn website: "My first employment after college was as a junior high school social studies teacher in Cleveland, Ohio, followed by positions as the head cook and food service manager for the Vermont Environmental Center, at Ripton, Vermont; another stint teaching junior high in the Middlebury, Vermont, Union School District;" and two years of journalism in Washington, DC, during the Watergate crisis. While in Vermont, he helped to organize the Snake Mountain Commune at Addison.
A prolific writer of poetry, Mr. Thomas occasionally published letters to the editor on political and social topics in Cleveland and Chagrin Valley publications. His progressive political commentary, studded with wit, attracted a large following on Facebook. His main hobbies were cooking, do-it-yourself home improvements and following Cleveland professional teams.
Donations can be sent to Shelter the People, Cleveland, 4843 Wendell Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44127 www.shelterthepeoplecleveland.org.
A memorial service and celebration of life will be held in Chagrin Falls on a date to be announced.

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