Bernard Preston Thomas

was born to a large homesteading family in Sheridan, Wyoming, in 1918. He was a 1937 graduate of Sheridan High School and graduated in 1942 from Woodbury College in Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Science degree in Commercial Art.

He served with the US Army in Europe during World War II. In 1945, at the recommendation of General George S. Patton, Thomas studied art at Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris, where he developed his interests and talents in mural and portrait painting.

He returned to Sheridan and married Betty McFall, a Chicago native who was teaching at Sheridan High School. The Thomases lived in Sheridan until 1953, when they moved to Boynton Beach, Florida.

Thomas is noted for his western art and documentary murals. Much of his art is in private collections.