April 24 2020
Thomas’ Obituary Thomas M. Wilson III, a nationally known expert on antitrust law who was charismatic, gentle and kind, passed away at his assisted living facility in Lutherville, Maryland, on April 24, 2020. He was 84. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 58 years, Deborah L. Wilson, who died a month earlier. He leaves three children, Deborah Prem (Keith) and Thomas M. Wilson IV, of Baltimore, and Leslie Penkunas (Keith) of Lititz, Pennsylvania, and grandchildren Alison and Hannah Prem and Cole and Kendall Penkunas. Born on February 22, 1936, in Ware, Massachusetts, to Anne (Shea) and Thomas M. Wilson, Jr., Mr. Wilson attended the Haverford School on Philadelphia’s Main Line and received his A.B. from Brown University. After serving for two years in the U.S. Army in Germany, he married Deborah Lockhart in Philadelphia in 1962 and the young couple moved to Baltimore County, where he worked in sales for Mid-Eastern Box Company. As he would later recount to colleagues, he went into a law library one day to look for an answer to a job-related issue. He didn’t leave until the library closed. In his mind, he became an antitrust lawyer on that day. He went on to earn his J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1971 and soon embraced the world of antitrust and constitutional law. In 1974, Mr. Wilson established the State of Maryland’s Antitrust Division, which he headed for five years as Assistant Attorney General and Chief. With then-Attorney General Francis B. Burch, he successfully defended before the U.S. Supreme Court antitrust and Commerce Clause constitutional issues in the landmark case Exxon Corp. v. Governor of Maryland. In 1979, Mr. Wilson joined Tydings & Rosenberg, LLP, where he developed and chaired the firm’s antitrust practice. There, he primarily defended corporations in antitrust, franchising, unfair competition, business tort, trade regulation, and constitutional law litigation. Mr. Wilson lectured and published in the United States and abroad on antitrust and trade regulation issues. He also testified before Congress on a variety of antitrust matters. A former Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, he was a decades-long member of the Advisory Board of the Bureau of National Affairs’ Antitrust & Trade Regulation Report and was active in the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association. Selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America for his work in antitrust law annually since 2007, Mr. Wilson was named “Lawyer of the Year” in Baltimore for his antitrust litigation practice by the same publication in 2014. He retired from Tydings Law in 2017 at age 81. When he wasn’t practicing law, Mr. Wilson loved travelling near and far with his wife, Deborah. He was a great fan of the Orioles, the Ravens and the opera. And he cherished time with his grandchildren, delighting in their visits to his beloved Baobab Farm. In addition to his wife, Mr. Wilson was preceded in death by his father, Thomas, his mother, Anne, and his sister, Martha Wilson Flanagan, all of Philadelphia. The family will hold a joint celebration of life for Thomas and Deborah Wilson after the COVID-19 restrictions for group gatherings have been lifted. Read More
Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Thomas Wilson III April 24 2020.
Death notice for the town of: Baltimore, state: Maryland