Aurele E. Thomas died May 21 at her home at Maplewood in Brewster following a brief illness. She was born October 30, 1935, in Mt. Kisco, New York, the only child of George and Edna Schmid Thomas. She lived on Sparkle Lake in Yorktown Heights, New York until she and her mother moved to Eastham, MA in 1972.
After two years of undergraduate work in journalism at Syracuse University, she spent two years as a reporter and area editor for a bi-weekly newspaper chain in Westchester County, New York. She received her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education in 1959 and her Master of Science in Education in 1964 from the State University of New York. She was certified as elementary and secondary school principal and to teach grades K-8. From 1959 to 1972, she taught grades 4 and 5 in Yorktown, N.Y., including four years as assistant principal. After moving to the Cape she taught grades 5 and 6 in Provincetown from 1972 until retirement in 1984.
Starting in 1983 she volunteered in the bird banding program at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and obtained her bird bander subpermit. She also worked for the Sanctuary for many years as a Teacher/Naturalist teaching environmental education in local elementary schools from West Barnstable to Provincetown and leading guided walks and boat tours for school groups and the public.
Aurele loved swimming and started as early in the season as possible and often swam as late as November. She was an avid birder and spent many hours in the field sharing the wonder of birds with others. Also, in her younger years, she enjoyed going out on a party fishing boat from Rock Harbor in Orleans to fish for tuna, stripers, and bluefish.
Aurele was predeceased by her parents and leaves behind many friends who will miss her wit and wisdom.
Thank you to the staff of Maplewood, the staff and nurses of Beacon Hospice, and the Privatus nurses for their kind and compassionate care of Aurele in her final days. She has requested that memorial donations go to Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, P.O. Box 236, South Wellfleet, MA 02663.
A celebration of her life will be held at a later date.
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