Mary and Rick became new members of St. Mark in October of 2025. Mary grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and Rick grew up in Portland, Oregon. They have attended multiple churches during their lives. Most recently, they attended LCMS Lutheran churches in the San Francisco Bay area in California.
Both Mary and Rick are retired and they each had multiple employment career paths. Mary worked in medical research at Yale and Stanford early in her career. She retrained and then worked as a diagnostic medical sonographer for 30 years at Sutter Health in the San Francisco Bay area. Rick worked for the Architecture/Engineering firm SmithGroup for 40 years. His first 10 years were spent as a licensed Architect working on hospital and research laboratory projects. He later retrained to work as an Information Technology manager in various IT roles for SmithGroup.
Mary and Rick met and married in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1991. They have lived in various Bay Area communities but settled in San Rafael, CA for their parenting years. Mary and Rick adopted their only daughter Emily from Changsha, China in 1995. Emily is now an adult and lives in Boston, MA, working in higher education and social services while pursuing a PhD in Social Policy.
After retirement, the Thomans decided to relocate to the Pacific Northwest for a new adventure and to be closer to family. They moved to Lacey in August of 2024. Mary’s brother lives in Bellingham, WA and Rick’s mom lived in an Adult Care Home in Gresham, OR but passed away last year. Rick’s sister lives on the Oregon coast. They recently purchased a home in the Steilacoom Ridge neighborhood in Lacey.
Mary and Rick enjoy hiking and reading. Mary grew up in an avid birding family and so they enjoy watching birds. Rick plays fingerstyle guitar “poorly” but enjoys trying. Mary is a New York Times Spelling Bee fan and Rick does Wordle most days. They enjoy volunteering for Thurston County Food Bank and St. Mark Clean Kids. They both enjoy watching pro baseball and basketball, and are loyal to their San Francisco teams, “but keep up with the Mariners as well”.
Mary and Rick said, “St. Mark has already helped us to feel comfortable. We appreciate the wide range of ministry opportunities and the current efforts to become a Reconciling in Christ congregation. We’ve found St. Mark to be a friendly place for newcomers. We see people living out their faith through love and service to the community.”