Thompson family

Thomas G. (Thomas Gordon) Thompson was born November 28, 1888 on Staten Island, New York, son of John Haslam Thompson and Mary Elizabeth Langdon Thompson. The Thompson family moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1894. After graduating high school in 1906, Thomas moved to Torrington, Connecticut, where he was employed in the chemistry lab of a manufacturing plant. The rest of his family followed him to Torrington where his brother, Jack, came to work for the Torrington Register . Thomas remained at the manufacturing plant until 1911, at which time he was given a Carnegie scholarship. The award allowed him to attend Clark University, a three-year college in Worchester, Massachusetts.

In 1914, Thomas moved to Seattle to pursue graduate studies in the Chemistry Department at the University of Washington. He received a Master’s of Science in 1915 and the university awarded him a Doctorate in Chemistry in 1918. He continued to teach chemistry at the university and, as time progressed, he became more exclusively concerned with oceanographic issues. In 1930, Thomas coordinated the formal establishment of the University of Washington Oceanographic Laboratories.

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