 His service as mayor of East Lansing in the 1960s was amid college-town student civil rights and anti-war protests.He was president of the Michigan Municipal League and served as a member of the executive board of the National League of Cities.Gordon Thomas was born in Orpington, England in 1914; his forebearers included William Bevil Thomas, Newfoundland merchant, and William Thomas, member of the Newfoundland Parliament.