Thomas H. Walz was born in Aitkin, Minnesota, in 1933. He received the BA degree magna cum laude in 1954 at St. John’s University of Collegeville, Minnesota, and the MA in Social Work at St. Louis University. He took his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, where he was hired to serve as professor. Walz accepted a position as director and professor of the University of Iowa School of Social Work in 1973, where he was director of the Gerontology Program, and served as director of the Iowa Multi-Disciplinary Gerontology Project. With his interest in writing poetry, he founded the National Writers Workshop for Social Workers. He was named an Obermann Fellow in 1997. Walz retired in 2001.

Through the School of Social Work, Walz established Wild Bill’s Coffeeshop in North Hall in 1974. The organization was named for Bill Sackter (1913-1983), an Iowa City resident with an intellectual disability credited with changing national opinions on people with disabilities. Sackter operated Wild Bill’s until his death, after which the organization continued to hire adults with physical and mental disabilities. Walz wrote Unlikely Celebrity: Bill Sackter's Triumph over Disability and two films were made about Mr. Sackter’s life. Walz was founder and director in 2001 of the Extend a Dream Foundation, a nonprofit to support Uptown Bill’s Small Mall in Iowa City.

Tom Walz and his wife, Lisa, had six children. Walz died February 10, 2018.