William R. Thompson, M.D. (burial)

by Editor on February 9, 2014

Private Committal Service

obit_photo.phpWRThompsonSection 92 Lot 17 Grave 3A

William R. Thompson, M.D., 84. A towering and revered figure in his professional community of physicians and surgeons, nurses, aides, and administrators; a leader in the advance of surgical practice and medical education. In Warwick, RI, from cancer.

A member of the American College of Surgeons and many other professional societies, and the author of numerous medical science articles, Dr. William Thompson was Clinical Professor of Surgery-Emeritus at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School. He was a pillar of wisdom and commitment in his field, stepping forward to take the chairmanship of the Brown Department of Surgery and serving as Acting Surgeon-in-Chief of Rhode Island Hospital on two separate occasions when the duties of leadership called.

Bill Thompson grew up in the logging and paper mill town of Livermore Falls where he acquired that “State of Maine” stalwart common sense that characterized his life with family, friends, and co-workers ever after. A loyal University of Maine alumnus, he received his Bachelor of Science degree from Orono in 1951. He then entered Cornell University’s School of Medicine where he was awarded the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1955.

Dr. Thompson’s surgical training began at Rhode Island Hospital in 1955. Two years later he joined the United States Navy Reserve in which he served as an active Flight Surgeon, assigned first to Pensacola, Florida and then to Quonset, Rhode Island, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Upon leaving the Navy he joined the surgical staff of Rhode Island Hospital and Providence Lying-In/Women’s and Infants Hospital and remained on the surgical staff of both institutions until reaching the honor of surgeon-emeritus.

In the early 1960s Dr. Thompson, along with his partner Dr. J. Robert Bowen, formed Surgical Group Inc., one of the first organized medical groups in Rhode Island, which later expanded to include Drs. Brian Dorman, Clarence Soderberg and Thomas Shahinian.
Throughout his long career, Dr. Thompson held numerous committee and association assignments, served on a variety of special boards and commissions, and earned awards for services performed for his profession, patients and the community. He was known not only for the breadth of his achievements but his compassion and selflessness, gaining him a distinguished reputation across Rhode Island, New England, and beyond.

In recognition of Dr. Thompson’s 34 years of dedication to the practice of surgery and teaching of residents and medical students, University Surgical Associates established an endowment upon his retirement that supports the William R. Thompson MD Annual Lectureship in Esophagogastric Surgery, The Thompson Library at R.I Hospital, and various resources for residents, including the annual sponsorship of a resident for surgical training in Africa.

Over the past two decades Dr. Thompson indulged his love for Maine through his rustic camp on a wooded point of land at Kennebago Lake where, during the kinder months of the calendar he could take out one or the other of his two “Rangeley Boats” to sharpen his art of fly-fishing and, at dawn and dusk, keep an eager look-out for moose and other wild neighbors of his cabin. And here he welcomed a steady flow of family and other visitors from near and far.

He is survived by his wife Diane Thompson and his stepson Daniel Brouillard; his former wife Sylvia (Sullivan) Thompson and their children Mary, an airline analyst; John, a bio-medical scientist; Kathryn, an attorney and legal ethicist; Norma, a college faculty member and academic administrator; and Bill, a wildlife biologist. Grandchildren include Jesse, Maegan, Kaila and Kiera Schedeen and Madeleine, Gary, and Kristen Thompson, and great-grandaughter Lilia Thompson.

A private memorial service is being planned and memorial donations may be made to the USA William R. Thompson Fund, PO Box 16149, Rumford, RI 02916.

Arrangements made by Carpenter-Jenks Funeral Home.

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