James C. Thompson ’67

Jim died Oct. 21, 2025, age 80, in the Orkney Islands in Scotland.

He grew up in Appleton, Wis. His family moved to Haverford, Pa., when he was a teenager and he attended The Hill School. At Princeton, Jim majored in English and wrote his senior thesis on the Cantos of Ezra Pound. Chairman of the Mountaineering Club and secretary-treasurer of the Outing Club, he was a programmer for the Experimental Film Society. He belonged to the Woodrow Wilson Society, roomed with Tim and Tom Tulenko, ran freshman track, and played intramural hockey.

After Princeton, Jim went to the University of Wisconsin in the Ph.D. program in English literature. Before he finished, he realized he did not want to teach. So, he took his M.A. in the English department and earned an MLS degree in the library school.

Jim’s career began at the University of Pennsylvania library before moving to Johns Hopkins in 1977. He married Jean Swanson (also a librarian) in Baltimore in 1980. They moved to Houston, and Rice University and then the University of California, Riverside, where Jim was appointed the university librarian and co-founded the Riverside Film Festival.

In 2000, they bought an old farmhouse on a hill overlooking the sea and the green hills of the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland. In 2007, both retired, Jim and Jean obtained visas and went to live in Scotland.

Jim is survived by his wife, Jean, and nieces Grace Armes and Susan Thompson. Classmates remember Jim as one of their kindest and friendliest members.