Thomas Lantz

Thomas Edward Lantz, Ph.D., Born April 6, 1940, died April 25, 2024. Tom was a father, grandfather, chemist, and small business owner, who loved the outdoors, science and learning. He was devoted over his life to a number of long-term community organizations, including Grace United Methodist Church, Kiwanis, the Methodist Children's Home, where he volunteered for many years, the Sierra Club, and other environmentally-focused projects. He loved the water. He loved to sail his 470 with his kids, and kayak with his friends in the whitewater in North Georgia. His family spent many beautiful Saturday afternoons canoeing down the Chattahoochee River, eddying out behind rocks and dodging the rafts. In later years he joined the Riverkeepers and helped preserve the beauty of the rivers for the next generation.

Tom was intensely curious and an ongoing student throughout his life, through Emory's OLLI and through extensive travels with his wife Marilyn, both just the two of them and also with their family. Lunch with Tom was as likely to bring discussions about new scientific discoveries as stories of his grandchildren.

Tom was always working on projects, whether houses, rental properties, wood working, or repairing items for the Methodist Children's Home to resell. He loved building and fixing anything and everything. He was an artist in wood, and created fabulous mobiles out of found materials, driftwood, cookie cutters, and glassware from the lab, creating joy and beauty from the things we see everyday.

Tom was predeceased by his wife of over 50 years, Marilyn Mitchell Lantz, and he is survived by his brother John Lantz and his sister Alma Lantz, by his children, Karen Patterson, Brian Lantz, Rebecca Lantz and Lela Lantz, his sons-in-law Perry Patterson, John DeRoo and Shimul Islam, his daughter-in-law Jennifer Lantz, and his grandchildren Cailah DeRoo, Brendan DeRoo, Caroline Patterson, Mitchell Paterson, Maxwell Lantz, Delaney Lantz, and Benjamin Lantz, and many other family members.