Thomas Klocke was born in Clay Center, Kansas and resided in Green, Kansas. It was in this rural setting and due primarily to his mother that he first experienced the influence that art can have on daily life.

He graduated from Clay County Community High School in 1967. He earned a BFA from Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, in 1971 and an MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, in 1973. He was a lifelong artist (as a painter and playwright) and arts advocate having worked at the Kansas Arts Commission in Topeka, Kansas, 1992-2007, and Hospital Audiences Inc. in New York city, 1986-1990. (Courtesy of the family of Thomas Klocke in his obituary, published by the Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home, Lawrence, Kansas, 2022)