Sheriff Thomas’s career has spanned forty years with twenty-six in the Virginia State Police (1976 to 2002), where he retired as the Special Agent in Charge of the Culpeper Field Office of the VSP’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation. After graduating in 1974 from VPI with a Bachelors degree in Forestry, Thomas worked for two and a half years as a U.S. Park Enforcement Ranger. Upon retirement from the VSP, he spent two years as a part-time investigator for the Page County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Thomas had been working on degrees in theology since 1995 and has attained two Doctorates: one in Pastoral Counseling and the other in Theology from the Institute for Theological Studies, the off-campus degree program for Dallas Theological and other seminaries. Upon leaving the Sheriff’s Office in 2004, he was the pastor of a small church and subsequently took the job as associate pastor for a 350-member church in Page County. God called him from this position to the appointment by the Circuit Court as acting sheriff of Page County in May of 2009. Six month later, the voters elected him to a full term, and he has served as Page County’s sheriff since then.