Michael Wilkeson Thompson

Thompson, Michael Wilkeson

Michael Wilkeson Thompson was born on September 12, 1957 in New York City to Eleanor (Callahan) and Charles (Torry) Thompson.  He died at age 62 of heart failure on March 24 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Michael grew up on the upper west side of Manhattan with his father, a writer and photographer, and his sister Anne, attending school at St. Hilda’s and St. Hugh's. He played on the grounds of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and Riverside Park, and loved to spend weekends at the movies, from Audie Murphy westerns and the Marx brothers to "A Hard Day's Night." He always chafed at authority, none more than the ushers policing the children's section with flashlights at the Riverside and Riviera theaters.

He became a superb player of high-level chess and Avalon Hill military war games such as "Dunkirk" and "D-Day," and accompanied Torry to peace and protest marches, hanging out with the Columbia University strikers in March of 1969. After a brief stint at Columbia himself, he worked at a number of different jobs, primarily as a board game designer and copy and book editor.  

Like many in his family, he persevered as a writer. He was a keen observer of his family and the world around him, reflected in an unpublished autobiography. Over the years, while he lived in many cities, he inevitably circled back to New York, as he navigated a vivid, often harsh nomadic life that would be hard for most of us to imagine. In 2018, he self-published a dystopian novel, "Under the Light of 500 Suns."

He is predeceased by his parents, aunt Mary Ellen Thompson Gleason and uncle John Callahan; and survived by his sister Anne Thompson, and half brothers, Peter Thompson and John Thompson; his aunt Alice Thompson Brew; cousins Kathryn and Marne Gleason, Greg and Aileen Brew; his uncle Edward Callahan and cousins Susan, Kevin and Richard Callahan; step-siblings Barby and Kanani DeKins and Annie, Miles, and Tommy Esty, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be privately held.