The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Richard Thompson
was born and raised in La Harpe, son of Ruth and Ernest Thompson. His mother
was a college graduate and taught in La Harpe schools and his dad was the
local banker and founder of Merchants Exchange after the banks closed in
the depression.
Richard said his parents encouraged him to go to college and on to dental school. He was also encouraged by Dr. Myers Sr., local La Harpe dentist who also was a La Harpe High School graduate.
Richard graduated from La Harpe High School in 1939. He attended Knox College for two years, taking pre-dental with lots of science courses. He was accepted at both Loyola and Northwestern University of Chicago Dental Schools. He began his Freshman year September 1941 at N.U. Dental School, Chicago. This took four years (9 months each year) to graduate.
After Pearl Harbor the government gave Richard and other dental students a deferment if they stayed in school and made their grades. Instead of nine months (4 years), Richard went the year around for 3 years.
Richard graduated September, 1944, and went into the Army Dental Corp as a First Lieutenant, serving from September 1944 to December 1946.
He worked at the Army Camps dental clinics in this country, but finally was sent to work out of the country on the islands of Saipan and Tinian in 1946.
"Not too much was going on with the World War II over," he said, but he saw North Field Tinian where the Enola Gay and the Atomic bomb took off.
The 6th Bomb Group was based on the island of Tinian during WWII and participated in the war effort against Japan during 1944-45. The Group, was part of the 313th Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force. Along with other groups based on Tinian and Guam, they were responsible for the bombing campaign that finally brought an end to the war. Although many lives were lost - on both sides - these efforts saved the millions of lives that would have been lost in an invasion of the mainland.
Dr. Thompson states, but he felt very lucky to get to finish school during the war and to help in some way as a dentist.
Finally, after the end of his service in 1946, Dr. Thompson went into private general dental practice in Lewistown from March 1947 to January 1993, where he retired.
He and his wife, Bess, from Watseka, IL, raised two boys and two girls. Ellen the youngest, became a dental hygienist and worked for him the last several years before he retired.
Dr. Thompson said that he and Bess spent January through March for eight years in Venice, Florida after retiring and loved it. They both golf. They were proud of her hole-in-one at Canton Country Club on the #1 hole in 1958 and twenty years later his hole-in-one on #18 at WeeMaTuk Country Club in 1978 Then he made a second hole-in-one in 1995 in Venice.
Dr. Thompson remains at home in Lewistown, busy taking care of his wife, Bess who has Alzheimers. He is thankful for wonderful parents and two younger sisters.
He states, "I had a very good education in La Harpe schools. Pauline Starkey did a lot to prepare me for college. As a teenager, we had a great hangout at Travelers Inn with juke Box and small dance floor. My first cousin, Dr. Marshall Stine, M.D. deceased and I started golfing at the local sand green golf course in La Harpe."
As an extra note, Dr. Thompson said he knew Howard Grigsby in the Bank of Stronghurst. "Dad helped him get his job there, I used to come there after Dad died in 1987 to take care of his CDs."
Dr. Thompson says he enjoys The Quill and keeping up on his friends and acquaintances in the are.
You can write him at...
J. R. Thompson, D.D.S. Retired
P.O. Box 284
Lewistown, IL 61452.