Arthur Frederick Thompson

Arthur F. Thompson, 89, former Lake Placid superintendent of schools and a career education advocate, passed away on Dec. 13, 2014 at his home in Fairport of complications due to Parkinson’s Disease.

Art was born April 5, 1925 in Port Henry on Lake Champlain, the third oldest child of nine born to Alfred G. and Bernice Spaulding Thompson, a foreman for the D&H Railroad and homemaker, respectively. His love of the mountains and their all-season sports opportunities came naturally. His particular love of skiing was developed early, in the snow-covered woods and on the winter streets of his home town.

Art graduated from Port Henry High School in 1942, and served in World War II with the army’s elite 10th Mountain Division, fighting in the mountains of northern Italy during the final campaigns of 1945. There he earned two Bronze Stars, one for valor, and a Purple Heart (combat wounded) in leading a machine gun squad.

Following the war, Art earned his Bachelor of Science degree in physical education at Cortland State Teacher’s College in 1948. As captain of the Cortland College Ski Team, Art raced on some of the very first ski trails cut on Lake Placid’s Mount Whitney, and at Whiteface Mountain’s Marble Mountain area.

Art married Norma Jean Wargo of Endicott, also a physical education teacher, on Aug. 28, 1948. Their professional careers began in Watertown, where Art coached skiing, ice hockey and football, and he and Norma taught physical education. His hockey and ski teams were annual participants in the Lake Placid High School Winter Carnival from 1948 to 1956.

Art earned his Master’s degree in education at St. Lawrence University in 1950. He earned certification as a chief school administrator, and completed doctoral course work at Syracuse University in 1960. Family and professional obligations prevented the completion of his dissertation, however.

His long-time commitment to community service was evident at an early date in his service on the then-new Carthage Housing Authority, and in his term as President of the Jefferson County Mental Health Association, both during the late 1950s.

In 1962, after six years as elementary school principal in the Carthage Central School district, Art was appointed supervising principal (later superintendent of schools) of the Lake Placid Central School district. For the next 18 years, he devoted himself to improving the lives of thousands of Lake Placid children through massive and continuing overhaul of the district’s educational programs and facilities.

During his tenure, he coordinated the broadest evaluation study of the district ever undertaken. The results spurred years of work by a supportive school board that included improvements in facilities, fiscal management, curriculum, and the advent of special instruction in reading. Art also improved opportunities for developmentally disabled children, assisted in the success of the Herkimer-Essex-Franklin BOCES vocational facility and programs, and oversaw construction of a complete new elementary school complex in 1976 to provide sorely needed space for modern programs.

In 1967, Art was selected by the U.S. State Department as one of a small group of educators to participate in a mission to study education systems in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Art’s tenure in Lake Placid culminated with the 1980 Winter Olympic Games, where he served as chairman of the Olympic Education Committee, and directed all aspects of the conversion of the Lake Placid High School into the Olympic Press Center (and back again). When he retired in June 1980, he was the longest-tenured superintendent of Lake Placid Central School up to that time.

In his education career, Art worked not only for Lake Placid’s future, but also for improved education all over the North Country and New York state. His numerous professional affiliations over the years included terms as:

President of the Northern New York Board of Approved Basketball Officials

President of the Northeast Zone Teacher’s Association

President of the Northeast Council of School Superintendents

Member of the Executive Committee of the New York State Council of School Superintendents

Member of the Athletic Committee of the New York State Council of School Superintendents (NYSCSS)

Chairman of the Membership Committee of the New York State Council of School Superintendents

Member of the New York State Commissioner of Education’s Advisory Council

As a member of the Athletic Committee of the NYSCSS, Art was instrumental in achieving rule changes requiring protective face gear for high school ice hockey players throughout New York state.

Art’s community involvement wasn’t limited to the public schools. He continued his earlier interest in mental health by becoming chairman of the Essex County Mental Hygiene Education Committee. He also became a member and later president of the Sunmount Developmental Center Board of Visitors, an advisory and oversight group dedicated to improving the care and teaching of the mentally disabled. Closer to home, Art served Lake Placid as a member of the:

Board of Trustees of Placid Memorial Hospital

Board of Trustees of Northwood School

Board of Directors of the Tri-Lakes Federal Credit Union

Member and president of the Lake Placid Kiwanis Club

Advisory Board of St. Francis Homes

Charter member of the Lake Placid Village Planning Board

Lector at St. Agnes Church, and chairman of the 1992 St. Agnes Bishop’s Fund Drive

Life member of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers

Art’s community service did not go without notice. Among the awards and honors he received were the following:

Honorary life memberNational Association of Parents and Teachers

St. Francis Homes Distinguished Service Award

New York State Council of School Superintendents Distinguished Achievement Award

Who’s Who in American Education

C-Club Hall of Fame at State University College at Cortland

Member of the Lake Placid Hall of Fame (inducted 2002)

After his retirement, Art served from 1980 to 1991 as an educational consultant to nearly 20 school districts across New York state, bringing his three decades of administrative and curricular experience to improving both teaching and administrative operations. Among the New York state schools which benefited from his work were:

Schroon Lake Central

Crown Point Central

Keene Central

West Canada Central

Poland Central

Copenhagen Central

Lisbon Central

Pine Bush Central

Richfield Springs Central

Despite the 70 years since World War II, Art recalled his service with the 10th Mountain Division with pride. He was a member of the 10th Mountain Division National Association for over 40 years, and served it as senior vice president from 1992 to 1995. He was also president of the Association’s Upstate New York Chapter for many years, and worked with the new 10th Mountain Division when it was re-established at Fort Drum in 1985. He helped the new troops build esprit de corps by promoting events which brought together today’s mountain soldiers with their WWII predecessors.

From 1988 to 1991, Art chaired the Fort Drum Monument Committee, which successfully raised over $135,000 to place a monument to America’s mountain soldiers at the home of the 10th Mountain Division. For his service he was named 10th Mountain Division Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year in 1992 by then-Commanding General Peter Boylan.

Later, he worked with the Essex County Board of Supervisors, in gaining the designation of River Road in North Elba as the “Tenth Mountain Division Memorial Trail.” The designation honors all service men and women of the Adirondacks who served with the 10th Mountain Division.

Yet all this is not the total measure of the man. During his 38 years of residence in Lake Placid, Art, often joined by his wife Norma, cheerfully volunteered his time and effort on behalf of the myriad of international, national, collegiate, scholastic and Olympic events held in Lake Placid. He was official host to the Polish Olympic hockey team during the 1980 Winter Games, and was selected to represent all Lake Placid Games volunteers in an address to the International Olympic Committee during the Games’ Closing Ceremonies. He also served as Chief of Stewards for all events held at the Olympic Ski Jump complex until 1992. In addition, he did extensive volunteer work at alpine skiing, nordic skiing, speed skating and ice hockey events. He was instrumental in developing the education policies under which hundreds of student athletes training in Lake Placid have been able to further their educations at the same time they further their athletic careers.

Art was predeceased by his beloved wife of 63 years, Norma, who passed away on June 26, 2011.

He is survived by his four children: Tom and his wife Jane Thompson of Bernalillo, New Mexico, Nancy and Bill Domm of Ontario, New York, Mary Alice Kutyn of Fairfax, Virginia and Richard and Kathleen Thompson of Frisco, Texas. He is also survived by seven grandchildren: Allison Domm of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, William G. Domm IV and his wife Crisy Sanfillipo of Rochester, Ashley Domm and her husband Kevin Gibbons of Washington D.C., Caitlin Thompson and her fianc Mike Ennis of Washington, D.C., Michael Thompson of New Brunswick, New Jersey, John Thompson of Salisbury, Maryland, and Jaclyn Kutyn of Fairfax, Virginia, and two great-grandchildren: Harris Caroline O’Neal, and Owain Arthur Domm Gibbons. Also surviving are his sisters: Jean (Sal) Leombruno of Tacoma, Washington, Joan Petro and Jane Raynor of Port Henry, Judy (Roy) Armstrong of Peru, New York, his brother Bill Thompson of Moriah and his brother-in-law and best friend Johnny Sweet of Port Henry. Eighteen nieces and nephews also survive. In addition to his wife Norma, he was pre-deceased by his parents, a sister, Joyce Thompson Sweet, and two older brothers, Frank and Alfred Thompson.

In 1889, the American poet S.W. Foss wrote:

“Bring me men to match my mountains,

Bring me men to match my plains,

Men with new empires in their purpose,

And new eras in their brains.”

Truly, Art Thompson was a man to match our mountains.

Remembrances of Art Thompson may be left at the following internet site, www.murphyfuneralservices.com/obits/obituary.php?id=631541

A funeral mass will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, April 13 at St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church in Lake Placid. Interment with full military honors will immediately follow in St. Agnes Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Art’s memory to the Tenth Mountain Division Foundation of Lakewood, CO (www.10thmdf.org), or the Lake Placid Public Library, 2471 Main St., Lake Placid, NY 12946.