Hugh Walter Thompson -- in Memoriam

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences-Newark by Frank Jordan, Chair of the Department of Chemistry, on March 25, 2009

It is indeed a sad and difficult task for a faculty member to try to briefly summarize the contributions and legacy of a long-time friend and colleague who passed away. Hugh Walter Thompson died on February 21, 2009 at the age of 72, eight days after suffering multiple injuries in a tragic accident on his way to work, driving a route he has taken thousands of times during his tenure at Rutgers-Newark since the summer of 1964 when he joined the Department of Chemistry as an assistant professor.

As his departure is irreversible, it is fitting to celebrate his life. Hugh was born in New York City to a mother who was a reporter and a dad who was also a chemistry professor, indeed for many years the Chair of the Chemistry Department at Kent State University in Ohio. Hugh's educational training was impeccable, having gotten an undergraduate degree at Cornell, PhD at MIT and postdoctoral training at Columbia University. Hugh always selected the top men in the field as mentors, Herbert House at MIT, who wrote 'the text book' on Organic Chemistry and Gilbert Stork at Columbia, who was a winner of the Wolf Prize. With that training, he was hired at the Newark College of Arts and Sciences at a time when the Chemistry Department was located in the old Ballantine Brewery building at 40 Rector Street in Newark. Hugh quickly rose through the ranks to Professor I by 1972, then held a number of important positions in the Department including chair, and for several years was the Director of the Graduate Program. Hugh taught both undergraduate and graduate courses, mostly in his favorite discipline of Organic Chemistry, as well as in structure elucidation of organic compounds.

Hugh trained both PhD students and undergraduate researchers in his laboratory and never stopped carrying out research. During the past couple of decades he had a very fruitful collaboration with Prof. Lalancette studying the properties of hydrogen-bonded molecules, a very important issue in both chemistry and biology. In fact, if one wished to talk to Hugh when he was not teaching, he was mostly found in Roger Lalancette's laboratory discussing this ever-fascinating topic and writing yet another manuscript on the subject.

Hugh's intellectual curiosity was boundless; he could be counted on to ask incisive questions at departmental seminars, no matter what the topic. But his curiosity extended well beyond science to virtually all aspects of life. One could say that Google was invented for Hugh and intellects like him. Just past fall on hearing that my wife was on a tour of Petra in Jordan, he disappeared for a few minutes, returning to inform me not only how to pronounce the name of that ancient town, but also to tell me about ancient ways that were used to date the age of sites at that particular archeological dig.

The numerous notes we have received from Hugh's former PhD students and undergraduates expressing gratitude for having Hugh as a caring mentor attest to his legacy.

The Department of Chemistry at Rutgers-Newark has always had a friendly and welcoming environment to faculty and staff, as well as to students. Hugh Thompson helped to create this milieu for more than 44 years and his presence is sorely missed by all of us.

To his wife Elizabeth Barnes Thompson, his daughter Victoria Thompson and his brother Geoffrey Thompson, we send our condolences and we thank them for sharing him with us through all these years. With his untimely passing, we share their grief.