Tom Lewinsohn, 94, of Overland Park, Kansas, died on July 2, 2025. Funeral services were held on July 6 at Louis Memorial Chapel.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (mchekc.org/giving/gift-of-remembrance) or a charity of your choice.
Frank Thomas Lewinsohn was born on June 16, 1931, to Dr. Hugo M. Lewinsohn and Mathilde (Silberstein) Lewinsohn in Berlin, Germany, where Hugo practiced medicine and Mathilde was a cosmetologist. Being Jewish, the family — including Tom’s older brother, Peter — fled rising threats from the Nazis in 1941.
They landed in Shanghai, China, one of the few places that would accept Jews at the time. They lived in the Jewish ghetto. Tom’s father cared for community members, and Tom attended a Talmud Torah (Jewish religious school) where, “if you were a good student . . . at the end of the year you got a pair of shoes.”
He completed high school at the age of 16 and then trained as an electrician to earn money to emigrate to America, learning English by watching movies in Shanghai’s theaters. He emigrated in 1948, landing in San Francisco, where his money soon ran out. A U.S. Navy sailor he met in Shanghai, Robert Ormsbee, arranged for Tom to come to Erie, Pennsylvania, Robert’s home, where Tom earned an American high school diploma and took courses at a nearby college. Tom’s brother, who came to America in 1947, was studying in New York City then, and the two worked in the state’s summer resorts as waiter and busboy.
Tom enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1951, trained as a B-26 bombardier and was stationed at Yokota Air Base in Japan. By coincidence, he shipped out of San Francisco to Yokohama on the very same boat that brought him to America six years prior. Tom became a U.S. citizen while serving in the Air Force.
Tom and his brother arranged for their parents to immigrate to America in 1950, and Hugo and Mathilde eventually settled in Osawatomie, Kansas, where Hugo became a staff physician in the town’s psychiatric hospital. Tom was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1955, and he moved to nearby Lawrence, Kansas, where, at the University of Kansas, he quickly completed a college degree in political science and graduate studies in personnel and public administration. He interned with the State of Kansas starting in 1956 and soon began rising through personnel administration ranks.
During that time, on a double-date with another couple, he met Alice Auguste Hony of Kansas City, then a student at the University of Kansas City (now UMKC). Alice was born in Hilchenbach, Germany, and had emigrated to America in 1938, also as a child. The two discovered their shared origins, began speaking German with each other (ignoring their dates), and, having found the loves of their lives, married on Tom’s birthday in 1957.
In 1964, Tom accepted a senior position in Kansas City’s personnel department despite the advice of a mentor who said the city was “a political hot bed” with “a government that’s full of patronage and… you probably won’t last more than six months there.” Tom skillfully rebuilt the city’s personnel system, however, and his political superiors and professional colleagues soon recognized his integrity, high standards and courage.
In 1968, prior to his 37th birthday, he was appointed Kansas City’s director of personnel, a position he held for 29 years. Tom supervised nearly 50 staff members, served over 4,000 city employees and worked with two unions to transform his department into one of America’s best large-city agencies. Because of his accomplishments, he was invited to consult for the Public Administration Service in Washington, D.C., as well as numerous municipalities across the United States and overseas. Peers recognized his achievements by electing him to leadership positions in several national professional organizations, including the presidency of the International Personnel Management Association, and by giving him numerous awards. An award was established in his name to be given annually by the Kansas City chapter of the Public Sector Human Resources Association to leaders in this region.
After retiring from Kansas City’s personnel department, Tom assumed a similar role, on a part-time basis, for the city of Prairie Village, where he professionalized its operations. Inspired by seminars he led for peers across America and overseas, he also began teaching courses on human resources management, also part-time, at Baker College and the University of Kansas.
Tom was preceded in death by his beloved Alice and dear brother, Peter. He is survived by his children, Rob and Debbie; granddaughter Anastasias Gregory; great-grandson Sean Michael Graham; former son-in-law Pete Brown; sister-in-law, Cynthia Lewinsohn; nephews, David and Mark Lewinsohn; and their wives and children. They and Tom’s other relatives and friends will miss his sweet company and the inspiring values gained from his life experiences.
Tom endeavored throughout his life and career to, as he said, “enlighten people against bigotry, against hatred… to accept each other as human beings and not based on religion, gender, or race or age. That we need to move forward and that maybe our children and their children may see a better day.”
Online condolences for the family may be left at louismemorialchapel.com.