HANCOCK POINT – Henry Swift Thompson, 93, died at his home in California, Dec. 18, 2004. He was born in Elmira, N.Y., Oct. 27, 1911 to Annie Louise Henry and Merle Dow Thompson. He attended the Kent School and graduated from Princeton University in 1933. He married Henrietta Wise and together they went to the Philippines, where he managed a local mahogany mill for the Insular Lumber Company. During World War II he was a major in the Army-Air Force, developing skip bombs at Eglin Field AAFB in Florida and Edwards (Muroc) AAFB in California. After the war he returned to Insular Lumber Company’s office in Philadelphia, where he eventually became its president. He continued to travel widely in Southeast Asia, where he met his second wife, Brenda Egerton. He was a member of the Asia Society and vice-president of the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce. He was an active democrat and founding member of the Philadelphia Branch of Business Executives for Peace in Vietnam. After retirement, he frequently traveled for the International Service Corps of Retired Executives. An enthusiastic golfer and skier, a competitive sailor and tennis player, he liked nothing better than to lead a day-long hiking expedition in Acadia with his old army canteen, but without maps, picking blueberries, getting lost, ending up satisfied and hungry for popovers at Jordan Pond House. He consistently enjoyed solving both the London Times and the Guardian crossword puzzles and he had a life-long zest for meeting new people and going on new adventures. He will be missed by his wife, Brenda; his sister, Eunice; his children, Anne Thompson of Medford, Mass., Retta Clews of Blue Hill and Henry Thompson Jr. of Edinburgh, Scotland; as well as his nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. There will be a memorial service at the Hancock Point Chapel next summer.
HENRY SWIFT THOMPSON
