Pauline M Thomas

Pauline was born on May 1st, 1927 and passed away on
March 22nd, 2025 at the age of 97Pauline Margaret Thomas, an Australian native and retired medical illustrator, died on March 22, 2025 at her home in West Orange, New Jersey. She was six weeks shy of her 98th birthday.
A celebration of Pauline's life will be held at the Hugh M. Moriarty Funeral Home, 76 Park Street, Montclair, N.J., on Sunday, April 27, from 2:30-4:30 p.m.
An hour-long visitation will be followed by a 3:30 Time of Remembrance and Reflection by family and friends.
Pauline was born on May 1, 1927 in Sydney, Australia, to George and Flora (McGill) Thomas, natives of Wales and Scotland. She immigrated to the United States with her family in 1944, after having lived in London, England, and Kingston, Jamaica. Even with her strong roots in the United Kingdom, Pauline became a true New Yorker, living in Manhattan, both uptown and in Greenwich Village, for 80 years.
After residing in the same fifth floor walk-up apartment on the Upper Eastside for 60 years, Pauline decided at the age of 97 to stop climbing stairs and move to New Jersey to live near family. Pauline kept her British connection strong while in the US as an active member of The Daughters of The British Empire (King Edward VII Chapter in NYC).
She studied art at the Art Students League and worked as an artist and as a well-regarded fashion model for both fashion illustrators and photographers, in New York and in Europe. Pauline exhibited her paintings at New York City galleries and went on to have an accomplished 30-year career as a medical illustrator, working for The Rockefeller University and for New York Hospital (now Weill-Cornell Medical Center).
Pauline Thomas was an elegant, well-read lover of art, literature, music, and nature. Her lifelong passions were art and dogs. She never lived without a purebred pet or two, and she participated as a handler in decades of dog shows, always relishing canine companionship. Pauline sketched and painted well into her 90's, and often found animals to be her models.
An independent woman, Pauline was predeceased by her parents and by her only sibling, a brother, Gordon Thomas. She is survived by two nieces, Jocelyn Thomas of Somerset, N.J., and Regina Thomas Griffith of Nutley, N.J., and a nephew, Martin Thomas of Wayne, N.J. She leaves two great-nieces and three great-nephews, and one great-great niece and two great-great nephews.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to National Public Radio, www.npr.org, or to The Audubon Society, www.audubon.org - two of many organizations that Pauline supported.