Back Country and county lose great advocate

     CAMPO — Back Country and county mogul Mike Thometz of Campo died Wednesday, Feb. 13, doing what he has become famous for in recent years: Keeping an eye on San Diego County politicians and staff.
     Michael “Mike” Thometz. Member of Campo’s VFW Post 2080, former U.S. Navy, Columbia and Harvard University graduate, non-radical environmentalist/ conservationist, lover of open space and country, a big guy in body and heart who moved around in large and small places.
     In attendance at Board of Supervisors Chairman Greg Cox’s state of the county speech in Balboa Theater Wednesday evening, Thometz collapsed of a heart attack in the theater lobby and was pronounced dead 45 minutes later at the hospital after resuscitation attempts failed. He was 69.
     Beginning with the announcement of his passing, praises came forth from a large population of friends and helpers outside Mike’s community of Campo. Mike has worked tirelessly with such groups as Quail Unlimited, and they, collectively, mourn his loss.
     In addition to land use issues, with local groundwater supplies topping his list of concerns, Thometz was involved with numerous organizations, including Mountain Empire Resources and Information Taskforce (MERIT), Quail Unlimited, a hunter-supported organization that builds and maintains animal habitat and wildlife water holes, and the Environmental Working Group of the San Diego Foundation.
     His work was so well respected in conservation and wildlife circles that San Diego U-T outdoor writer Ed Zieralski has called for the creation of an annual conservation award to be given in his name, specifying that it should go to “a guy or gal who isn’t afraid to get dirty.”
     San Diego Quail Unlimited chapter president David Preddy described him as “the epitome of a conservationist without being an extremist or an environmentalist.”
     Patsy Fritz, a former Planning Commission member, recalls Mike as the guy who tried to get the Department of Planning and Land Use to “straighten up and fly right”. Praise and regret at his passing continue to come from all over.
     But locally is where Mike’s greatest struggles took place. Along with trying to “save” his community, and the Back Country, he socialized and worked with highly focused and intelligent individuals from all walks of life.
     In Campo, Mike worked to produce a monthly newsletter and operated a popular recycling center for MERIT. Proceeds from the group are used to cover information dissemination, grants for local organizations, such as the Mountain Empire Homemakers, Veteran’s of Foreign Wars post in Campo, local public schools, and the club’s own scholarship program. He served on various local land use subcommittees and is credited with bringing locally focused online information about Back Country planning and groundwater activities.
     “He did so much,” said Campo Lake Morena Planning Group member Joe Carmody. “He just had endless energy. He will be sorely missed.”
     Thometz’s energy in watching county politics, particularly those related to land use, was respected, even by people who might ordinarily be considered on opposite sides of the land use fence. According to property rights advocate and East County newsgroup operator Charlene Ayers, she and Thometz were both “blacklisted” by the county for delving often and deeply with freedom of information requests.
     Though Thometz himself was not successful in getting elected to local office, he was instrumental during two hotly contested elections in helping a slate of candidates be elected to the Campo Lake Morena Community Planning Group on the “growth at a rural pace” platform.
     This was Mike Thometz, leader and founder of MERIT, Editor of the MERIT newsletter, and the MERIT Recycling center organizer and worker. Sorting through all the recyclables, he took time to save for folks — soup labels, cereal coupons, items that folks would turn in for various charitable gifts for children and schools. All who stopped by the center to complain about development or groundwater issues would get an earful. He studied everything, went to every meeting to educate himself.
     While others in the community also performed good deeds, they received the public credit due them. Likely what went wrong for Mike is he appeared in a small community and began to take issue, before he had earned the right to do so. There are rules in small communities that are often not written down, but “understood.” Some need public praise. Mike moved away from praise.
     Life partner Theodora Davis said there is no memorial service planned, nor will there be a cremation or interment ceremony: “He wanted no memorial service,” Davis said. Thometz, in keeping with his passion for education, had his body donated for scientific research: “UCSD has it now,” Davis added.
     She suggested that people interested in offering a tribute to Thometz could do so by making a donation to MERIT, San Diego Quail Unlimited or the San Diego Blood Bank, where he donated blood as often as allowed.
     Thometz was born in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 16, 1938, to parents Kathryn and Anthony Thometz. The family moved to Sweet Home, Ore, in 1940, according to brother Patrick. He spent his early life there, attending a rural two-classroom grade school, and learned logging techniques from his father, an engineer in the industry. At the age of 16, he started classes at Stanford University and earned an engineering degree when he was 20.
     He spent two years in the U.S. Navy, entering from ROTC as an ensign, after which he attended Harvard University and earned a masters degree in business. He then gravitated to the banking industry and worked in both London and Chicago.
     Ultimately, he moved to California and, after operating a own trucking firm for a time, went to work as operations manager for IMS Recycling Services, where he met Davis.
     In 1994, about the time he retired, he moved to the Davis Ranch in Campo. Long an advocate of wildlife preservation and habitat, Thometz devoted much of his retirement to habitat rehabilitation: “He truly appreciated the open spaces,” Davis said.
     Davis describes Thometz’ involvement in local politics as having begun when the community learned of several nearby development proposals, the largest of which was a plan by St. Vincent de Paul to build a youth shelter on land donated by Tom Dyke of Alpine.
     “He said ‘Someone needs to step up and take care of this, or you’re going to be overrun,’” Davis recalled.
Thometz and others began to see the legion of problems with the way government was carried out in rural areas: “We found the county to be dysfunctional,” Davis said. “He just made it his life work to try to fix it.”
     “He had a thirst for knowledge… he wasn’t satisfied unless he was learning, thinking, solving a problem,” Davis said.
Mike’s compartmentalized brain allowed him to do many tasks at the same time. In his organization, he seemed disorganized. His notes incomprehensible to anyone but him, carrying around boxes full of information only he understood. He told the truth, as he saw it, and his baptism by fire became just that. He had both friends and enemies; all fiercely for or against him.
     In addition to Theodora Davis, Thometz is survived by his brother, Patrick Thometz; nieces Sharm Muller, Alison Thometz and Toni Thometz; Davis’ children, Tamoura Inman, Charles Inman and Belle Inman-Coyle.
     He dedicated himself to the helpless; and in death, to science. His foes will no longer have to stay up late at night trying to outthink him. Local meetings will lose their luster. Certainly, without Mike, things will be dull.

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