David H. Thomas, 76, passed on quietly in his sleep Saturday morning. After moving to Monroe from Brunswick, Maine, in 2008, he had made his home with his sister, Amy Gray.

The son of Laurence M. and Ellen (Hopkins) Thomas, he was born in 1934 in Ypsilanti.  A graduate of Principia College, a Christian Science college in Elsah, IL, he made a career in journalism, specializing in copy editing, in Benton Harbor, MI, The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, The Wall Street Journal in Brussels, Belgium, and, for the longest period, The Christian Science Monitor in Boston, MA.  At the Monitor, he updated the style book, a major undertaking.   He retired to Maine.

David was in England for a term in college, and served afterward in the army in Germany.

He was preceded in death by a brother, navy Capt. Edward  (Ted) Thomas, then of Howell, and brother-in-law, Grattan Gray, and is survived by Ted's wife, Myrle, now of Minneapolis, MN, and by Grat's wife, Amy, of Monroe, nephews Stephen (Cynthia) Gray and Matthew (Candy) Gray, a brother, Laurence W. Thomas, of Ypsilanti, and two nieces and eight grand-nephews and nieces.

A sweet man, his vast fund of knowledge, puns, and wry humor endeared him to his friends and family.