Irvine Co. official leaving company

Larry Thomas, the chief spokesman for the Irvine Co. who was once a press secretary for George H. W. Bush, Pete Wilson and other notable political leaders, announced Thursday he is retiring after 20 years with the developer.

Thomas joined the Irvine Co. in 1987 and oversaw its marketing and relations with the media as the developer’s senior vice president of corporation communications.

In a statement to colleagues, he said he planned to slow down as he approached his 60th birthday.

“My family and I consider ourselves wonderfully blessed to have lived, labored and prospered in this special place,” Thomas wrote.

Later, he waxed poetic: “Ah, the memories I take with me and cherish — of colleagues who have become genuine friends, of historic moments that remind us of our ambitious mission and accomplishments, and of tough times in the foxhole as well as exhilarating times on the mountaintop.”

A journalism major at San Diego State University, Thomas went on to a reporting career with the San Diego Union-Tribune, United Press International and KPBS-TV in San Diego. He served as press secretary to then-San Diego Mayor Wilson in the 1970s and California Gov. George Deukmejian in the 1980s, and briefly left the Irvine Co. in 1994 to work on Wilson’s gubernatorial reelection campaign.

His career with the company came to a temporary halt again in 2000, when he resigned to take personal time.

Thomas returned the following year.

“So Larry Thomas is leaving the Irvine Co. — again,” said Richard Luehrs, president of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce, with a chuckle upon hearing the news Thursday.

The two decades he had spent working with Thomas, he added, had given him the chance to see a first-rate professional in action.

“Larry Thomas is probably one of the top public relations people in the country and has been for quite some time,” Luehrs said.

“A former presidential speech writer, an unbelievable ability to put out a story and put a positive face on it for the company for so many years. He will be missed.”