Lt. Col. Jack H. Thompson

Jack H. Thompson, 91, Yorktown, Va., died Oct. 14, 2019, of natural causes at his home. He was born Dec. 14, 1927, in Wabash, to Raymond and Pauline Thompson.

He graduated from Linlawn High School in 1945, and enlisted in the Army.  He served three years on active duty and returned to civilian life in 1948, continuing to serve in the Army Reserves. In 1949, he married the love of his life, Mary Louise Denney. They were in the seventy-first year of marriage at the time of his death.

Jack worked at the General Tire and Rubber Company until he went back on active duty with the Army in 1952. He was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in the Army Corps of Engineers at 18 years of age, and spent the next twenty-five years in assignments to include Japan, Guadalcanal, Hawaii; Fort Campbell, Ky.; Fort Kobbe, Panama Canal Zone; Brazil, South America; Korea; Fort Belvoir, Va.; Germany, and Vietnam before retiring as a Lt. Col. at Fort Eustis, Va., in 1973.

Jack served as an Army pilot from 1953, flying both fixed and rotary wing aircraft. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland, and two Masters Degrees, one from the College of William and Mary at the age of forty-eight, and the second from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University at the age of seventy-six.

After retiring from the Army, with twenty-eight years of service, Jack devoted the next forty-eight years working at the Education Center at Fort Eustis, Va. First for St. Leo University for three years as a counselor and instructor, and the next forty-three years as Center Director for Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. In this position, he counseled active duty and retired military personnel regarding achieving undergraduate and graduate degrees. He loved his work and his students, and they loved him in return. He never retired from his work with Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, working until the day he died.

Jack is survived by his wife, Mary Louise Thompson, two daughters, Elizabeth Ann Stabnow and Cheryl Jean Thompson, granddaughter, Jackie (Robert) Stabnow Garrison, brother, Dr. John R. (Susan) Thompson, sister-in-law, Karen Maloy Thompson, and many other family members. He was preceded in death by his parents. In the year following his death, three sisters, Mary Lou Deifenbaugh, Rebecca Summers, and Phyllis Coppock, and his younger brother, Patrick Thompson, died, leaving John Robert, the sole survivor of the six siblings.

A committal service for Jack will be 2 p.m., Saturday, July 24, at the Falls Cemetery Chapel, 725 Falls Avenue, Wabash, with Pastor J.P. Freeman officiating. Inurnment will follow the services. Arrangements by Grandstaff-Hentgen Funeral Service, 1241 Manchester Avenue, Wabash.