Henry Swift Thompson ’33

Hank, of Hancock Point, Maine, and Grass Valley, Calif., died at home in California Dec. 17, 2004.

He attended Kent School prior to Princeton. He married Henrietta Wise and they went to the Philippines, where he managed a local mahogany mill for the Insular Lumber Co. During World War II he was a major in the Army Air Force, developing skip bombs at Eglin Field Air Force Base in Florida and Edwards Air Force Base in California. After the war he returned to Insular Lumber in Philadelphia, where he eventually became president. He continued to travel widely in Southeast Asia and around the world. He was a member of the Asia Society and vice president of the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce.

Hank was an active Democrat and a founding member of the Philadelphia branch of Business Executives Move for Peace in Vietnam. After retirement he frequently traveled for the International Service Corps of Retired Executives.

Hank liked nothing better than to lead day-long hiking expeditions in Acadia National Park in Maine with his old Army canteen and no maps, picking blueberries, getting lost, ending up satisfied and hungry for popovers at Jordan Pond House. He had a lifelong zest for meeting new people and going on new adventures.

He will be missed by his wife, Brenda; his sister, Eunice; his children, Anne, Retta Clews, and Henry Jr.; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

The Class of 1933