Gerald E. Thomas

(1922- 2005) born at Seward, Seward County, lived in Omaha. Marketing director for C. A. Swanson and Campbell Soup Companies, inventor of TV dinner in Omaha in 1952; was first chairman of Consumer Information Program (sponsored by the National Association of Frozen Food Packers) which was credited with much growth in the use of frozen foods in the 1960s; was inducted into Frozen Food Hall of Fame in 1998; his handprint was enshrined alongside an imprint of the aluminum tray in the sidewalk near Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California in 1999. Consult Quick Frozen Foods, January 1968, pp. 38, 117 and Omaha World Herald, May 10, 1996, p. 19 and Denver Post, April 28, 1999, pp. E-1, E-4 and obituaries in New York Times, July 21, 2005, p. C-18 and Washington Post, July 21, 2005, p. B-6.

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