S.H. Thompson (1870-1950), a West Virginia native and 1892 graduate of Howard University (Washington D.C.), settled in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1898, where he, along with other colleagues, opened a pharmacy. This effort lead to his participation in the opening of Douglass Hospital, a facility dedicated to the care of African American patients, in 1899. Thompson served for a time as the hospital's Superintendent, and was affiliated with the Hospital for over fifty years. He married Belle Jane Armstrong in 1898; he died on December 11, 1950.
Thompson's son, S.H. Thompson, Jr. (1904-1989), served as the supervisor of African American elementary schools in Kansas City, Kansas, from 1938-1951, and later as the principal of Sumner High School from 1951-1972, a school of which he was a 1922 graduate. He graduated from Hampton (Virginia) Institute in 1925, and earned his Masters degree in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin. He attended the University of Kansas, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and the Unviersity of Missouri-Kansas City. He was a member for Alpha Phi Alpha and Sigma Pi Phi fraternities. Thompson, Jr., married Lucille Raymond in 1928; together they had two children, Henry Raymond Thompson and Suzanne Marie (Thompson) Knowles. He died in 1989.
From the guide to the S.H. Thompson Family Papers, 1900-1979, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library Kansas Collection)
