Pat Thomas, a leader among Central Oregon auto dealers and former owner of Thomas Sales and Service, died Tuesday afternoon in a Honolulu hospital.

He was 80 years old, said his son, Matt Thomas, who took over the family business with his brother, Bill, in 1995. Services are pending.

Pat Thomas had just returned to his Hawaii home after a 12-day boat trip in Tahiti when he became sick with pneumonia and was hospitalized for about a week, Matt Thomas said.

“I think it was just old age,” Matt Thomas said. “He had a very rare blood disease that he had been fighting for five to six years. When he got pneumonia and went in there he was too frail to make it out.”

Pat Thomas grew up in the auto industry, his son said.

When Pat Thomas returned from serving in the Air Force in 1957, he started operating Thomas Sales and Service, the company founded by his father in 1937, and purchased it a few years later.

In the early 1960s, he started expanding the business, purchasing the Dodge dealership in Klamath Falls, opening a Thomas Sales and Service lot in 1968 in Redmond — which still operates today — starting an import lot in Bend selling the Jaguar, Land Rover, Subaru and other brands.

He bought the Bend Dodge, Chrysler and Plymouth dealer in 1976 and built the Subaru dealership — which his sons operate today at the same location on U.S. Highway 20. A year later, he moved the Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth and Subaru brands to that location.

“My kids are in the car business as (the) fourth generation now,” Matt Thomas said. “And my dad has had a pretty big influence … in teaching us and influencing us in business.”

In addition to his role in the car industry, Pat Thomas was also active in the community, helping start Mountain View Hospital in Madras, his son said.

“He absolutely believed in giving back to the community,” Matt Thomas said.

He also served on the school board, was a charter member of the Elks Lodge in Madras and frequently spent his mornings sipping coffee with businessmen at a Madras coffee house. But his passion was traveling, boating and spreading the “travel bug” to his family, Matt Thomas recalled.

“My parents have been around the world 20 times,” he said. “They have absolutely been to every country that they would want to go to.

“He took all of us to South Africa … He liked sharing that experience, going on safaris with his grandkids.”