Background
He was born in Corsica, Pennsylvania, in 1849, to John Jamison Thompson and Agnes Kennedy. He was of Scottish and Scotch-Irish stock, with two Presbyterian ministers for near ancestors.
(Excerpt from Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa...)
Excerpt from Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Vol. 1: Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1861 1865 The letters printed herein are selected from the F ox Papers, whose publication has long been hoped for by the Navy. Mrs. Fox, by her will, left these papers to her nephews, Woodbury, Montgomery and Gist Blair, who have wisely retained them until the Opinions as well as the deeds of the men who controlled the sea for us in the fateful years-from '61 to '6 5, have become history. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
https://www.amazon.com/Confidential-Correspondence-Gustavus-Vasa-Vol/dp/1332342663?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1332342663
Financier lawyer philanthropist sportsman
He was born in Corsica, Pennsylvania, in 1849, to John Jamison Thompson and Agnes Kennedy. He was of Scottish and Scotch-Irish stock, with two Presbyterian ministers for near ancestors.
After a period of schooling at a local academy, he was appointed midshipman on July 30, 1864, and shortly thereafter entered the United States Naval Academy, then at Newport, R. I. Four years later he graduated tenth in a class of eighty-one.
He studied law in the office of his brother, and after admission to the Pennsylvania bar entered the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated in 1874.
He saw his first sea service on board the Contoocook, of the North Atlantic Squadron. Subsequently he served with the Mediterranean Squadron, at the Torpedo Station, and on board the Wachusett. He was commissioned ensign in April 1869; and master, in July 1870. Ambitious and enterprising, Thompson sought a calling with better prospects than those of the naval profession in the seventies.
He then was admited to the Pennsylvania bar. Soon after beginning practice in Boston, he became assistant reporter of the Massachusetts supreme court and helped to prepare for publication volumes 115 and 116 of the court's reports. In 1876 and 1877 he was elected a member of the Boston Common Council, and in the latter year served as chairman of the Young Republican Committee in the state election for governor. His retention as counsel in an investigation of the titles to some Canadian mining properties resulted in his acceptance of the management of the Orford Copper Company, an act that largely determined his later career. It led in 1902 to a directorship in the International Nickel Company, a consolidation of various American and foreign companies, of which Thompson shortly became chairman of the board of directors. He took an active part in the technical problems of nickel mining and manufacture, and particularly in the process of separating nickel from copper. He also served as a special partner in the brokerage firm of S. H. P. Pell & Company, New York City. Through these and other connections, by reason of his enterprise, he accumulated a large fortune, which enabled him during the last twenty years of his life to give unsparingly both money and time to numerous public activities.
Thompson's lively interest in sport and athletics led to his selection as the first president of the American Olympic Association and as chairman of the American committee at the contests at Stockholm in 1912 and Paris in 1924. He was a leading officer of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, the Navy League, and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. First, however, in his affections was the United States Naval Academy. He had an active part in securing the passage of the bill of 1898 that provided for its rebuilding. He was organizer and first president of the New York Naval Academy Alumni Association, and the moving spirit in founding the Navy Athletic Association.
Among his benefactions to the academy, singly or with others, were the Thompson trophy cup, a collection of books on the history of electricity, and a set of doors for the chapel. The athletic field at the academy is named for him, and there is in Mahan Hall a life-sized bust, with the inscription, "The Academy's Best Friend. " His visit during graduation week, 1930, was his fifty-fifth June week in Annapolis.
In 1920, with his classmate Rear Admiral Richard Wainwright, Thompson edited for the Navy History Society the Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1861-1865, in two volumes. He acquired the rank of colonel by service on the staff of the governor of New Jersey during the Spanish-American War.
He died at his daughter's home, Fort Ticonderoga, N. Y. , and was buried at Portsmouth, R. I.
(Excerpt from Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa...)
Socially inclined and warm-hearted, he made many friends, whom he delighted to entertain on board his yacht The Everglades.
On April 30, 1873, he was married at New Haven, Connecticut, to Sarah Gibbs, daughter of William Channing Gibbs, a governor of Rhode Island. They had an only child, Sarah Gibbs.