Remembering Jean Williamson Thompson

Jean Williamson Thompson, daughter of Westminster Choir College founders John Finley Williamson and Rhea Parlette Williamson, died on April 16, 2015.  She was preceded in death by her husband, Mark R. Thompson, a brother, Jack Williamson, and a sister, Delight Williamson Holt.

Jean was born in Dayton, OH on March 19, 1923.  Her parents had founded the Westminster Choir School in Dayton in the 1920’s, and after a short stay at Ithaca College in New York State, her family moved in 1932 to Princeton, N.J. where the school found a permanent home and matured to become the Westminster Choir College.  Jean grew up in the presence of a wide range of luminaries.  She told stories of sharing ice cream cones with Albert Einstein, who lived just a few doors away, as she walked home from school, and of his helping her with arithmetic homework.  Charles Higgins, one of Westminster’s earliest graduates, worked in the Williamson home.  He was a special friend of Jean’s and his iced tea recipe is still served at just about any Thompson family gathering.  Her parents were strict teetotalers, but they always kept a bottle of red wine available for those times when Arturo Toscanini was a guest. Leopold Stokowski was a player in several family stories, including the time he and his new young bride, Gloria Vanderbilt sought refuge from the press at Hawthorne Heath, the Williamson’s home, and Jean was complimented by Gloria for her jelly sandwiches, about the only thing she then knew how to prepare. Jean remembered many of Westminster’s early students and especially early faculty with great affection. Her parents were very busy people and often preoccupied, and she spoke often of how the extended Westminster family served as surrogate parents.   

Even as she married, Westminster played a role. It was in Princeton in 1943 that Jean met her husband, Mark, then a student at Princeton Theological Seminary. Their engagement was first announced backstage at Carnegie Hall. They married on May 17, 1944, the same month Mark graduated and enlisted in the U.S. Navy Chaplains Corps. Dorothy Maynor, then appearing at Carnegie Hall, offered the newlyweds her penthouse apartment at Carnegie for their honeymoon. 

At the end of the war, Mark became Chaplain at Lafayette College, Easton, PA.  He returned to active duty with the Navy in 1952, and with four young children in tow Jean and Mark entered the migratory lives of military families.  Two more children rounded out their family, and in 1958 they accepted the call to Westminster Presbyterian Church in Scranton, Pa. 

Scranton was their home for the next 24 years, with many summers spent at Culvers Lake, NJ.  While Jean especially loved the close bonds and camaraderie of Navy friends, she found hosts of new friends both in their church, the broader Scranton community,  and Culvers Lake 

In 1982 Mark and Jean retired to a senior community in Oveido, Fla.  Mark continued some part time ministerial assignments, but visits from family and old friends, activities with new friends, and travel allowed for a more relaxed life for Jean and Mark.

In 1997 they moved to Woodland Towers, an apartment community in DeLand, Fla.  The community buzzed with opportunities for more new friends, and continued activities, visits and travel. Jean discovered the computer world of the Internet and email around this time, and found new ways to stay in touch and broaden her circle of friends.  Except for a couple of brief sojourns, Jean spent the rest of her life there.

Jean is survived by her children: Mark Thompson Jr. (Lynda), Nashville, Tenn., John Thompson (Kathryn), Monroe Twp., Pa., Scott Thompson (Tish Hickman), Maryville, Tenn., Robert (Bob) Thompson (Susan), Falls, Pa.,  Robin Bowling, Kissimmee, Fla. and Ross Thompson (Wendy), Edwardsville, Pa., several nieces and nephews, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Jean is also survived by her sister-in-law, Mary Williamson Gorman, Duluth, Minn.

Memorial services are yet to be scheduled.  Jean will be laid to rest with Mark in the Columbarium at Arlington National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, Jean asked that you please consider a donation in her name to:

John F. and Rhea B. Williamson Endowed Scholarship
Westminster Choir College  ATTN: Kate Wadley
101 Walnut Lane
Princeton, NJ  08540
(Please make check payable to Westminster Choir College of Rider College)

Or via credit card online at https://alumni.rider.edu/wccscholarships