Eugene Thompson:
CLASS OF 1959
Edwin Denby Technical & Preparatory High SchoolClass of 1959
Detroit, MI
University of Michigan - EducationClass of 1965
Ann arbor, MI
Western Michigan UniversityClass of 1963
Kalamazoo, MI
Columbus Elementary SchoolClass of 1955
Detroit, MI
Eugene's Story
Life
After Denby I graduated from Western Michigan University (BA'63). My first professional position was with the Warren Woods Schools teaching fourth grade. Many moves followed taking me to Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Birmingham (AL), and Anchorage (AK) among other locales. I worked as a school district administrator and as a university professor. I retired as superintendent of the Huntsville (AL) City Schools in 2000.
I married Vi White (S'Eastern'59) a week before my graduation from WMU after an on-again off-again relationship that went on through high school and college. The marriage lasted 10 years and two kids. Jeff (44) is a molecular biology professor. Beth (40) is an R.N. Between them I have four grandkids...Lexy (14), Nick (12), Emily (11) and Adriane (9).
My wife, Sandra Starbuck McConnell, Ph.D. (Ball State University) and I met in Richmond, IN when I became the superintendent of the schools there in the mid '90's and she was the assistant director of special education. We live on our small ranch about half way between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon. A couple of days a week we ride a couple of our horses from our home into either the Granite Mt. Wilderness or on a neighbor's 50 sq. mile Deep Well Ranch.
On the professional side, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (now Secretary of Homeland Security) appointed me to serve on the nine member Arizona Early Childhood Development & Health Board in 2007. The board manages $150M per year in revenues. I've been a member of the Yavapai Community College Foundation Board and served on our Presbyterian church board. In addition, I was the chair of the Yavapai County Democratic Party for a couple years. Occasionally I do consulting work for the U.S. Dept. of State. My assignments for the U.S. Office of Overseas Schools have been throughout Central America, the former Bolivar countries of South America as well as in Thailand, Mexico, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Mauritania.
For recreation and fitness...in addition to horses...I'm an infielder in the Prescott Senior Softball League, ski, hike, kayak, lift weights, ride the stationary bike in our home gym and play an occasional round of golf. Once in awhile I ice skate at a nearby arena to stay in shape for skiing.
An icy vodka martini or a glass of a nice cabernet in the evening while enjoying the view of the nearby mountains at sunset makes life about as good as it gets these days! I survived the crashes in life and basically did it my way. Friends have said that I was happiest flying mach one at tree top level (metaphorically)
...or standing on the edge of the abyss. I have a few deep regrets but not many.
Life is now more relaxed and less driven. After a 45 year career of organizational development and leadership, strategic planning, assessing stakeholder perceptions, data based decisions...blah, blah, blah...I'm trying to listen to the softer inner voices. Horses are key to the reinvention...the gentleness of their spirit is mystical. I am a devotee of the Pat Parelli (parelli.com) natural horsemanship process...Tempt Me Tango is my 12 yr. old Rocky Mt. Horse gelding. We constantly seek greater harmony. The key to it is to put the relationship first...that's always good advice. I also enjoy keeping the hummingbird feeders filled and my rose bushes trimmed.
I'm very interested in learning about the life journeys of old friends from an earlier era. I can be reached at ew310 at cableone.net.
Denby High School
My memories of Denby are mixed. There were very few really good teachers, counselors or administrators and a whole bunch of people who never should have been allowed near a school or kids. To give them the benefit of the doubt, trying to work in a school of almost 5,000 kids had to seem like daily chaos. They likely had no ti...Expand for more
me to try to know their students...if they did care. The high school years were a time when I gave up my dream of the U.S. Naval Academy. I can recall only a few classes that I really enjoyed. I was glad to leave Denby behind and never looked back. At the same time I remember some really good friends and laughter.
As a 14 year old freshman at 5'6" and 110 lbs. I was too small for the traditional sports of football and basketball and couldn't hit a curveball in baseball so I found my niche as a spring/summer athlete on the golf team. I had a fairly natural talent for the game along with the ability to focus and an intense desire to win. During the winter I played hockey at the Heilmann Center on a team called the Easttown Disks. I grew rapidly and my intensity compensated for my earlier lack of size. We won the outdoor league city championship in '59. My hockey days ended when I was about 40.
Western Michigan University - University of Michigan
I enrolled at Wayne State after Denby, mainly because my dad was unemployed in the recession of '58-'59 and I had a job at Fox Portrait Studio on Gratiot. Living at home and going to WSU wasn't for me though and I transferred to WMU after one semester where I partied, played club-level hockey and studied just enough to keep from being drafted.
Prof. David Adams held a personal meeting with each of his education major students...I told him that I wanted to become a principal as soon as possible. He suggested that I switch from secondary to elementary education since there are four to six elementary schools for every high school and...that I get serious about my studies. I followed his suggestions and loved my time working with elementary age kids. The change led to a promotion to principal in the Warren Woods Schools.
I earned my Masters degree in school administration at U-M in '65 and had planned to return to earn my doctorate. I was about 30 and an administrator in the Gull Lake Schools near Kalamazoo...I had a wife, two kids, a mortgage and car payment and a deteriorating marriage...it wasn't the best time to start an intense graduate school program but, I was recruited to enroll full time in WMU's new doctoral program in organizational (not-for-profit) leadership with an offer of their best graduate associateship. Earning my doctorate in '72 opened the door to a career of positions and assignments all over the world.
Career
I worked as an administrator, professor or superintendent in the Warren Woods (MI) Schools, the Gull Lake (MI) Schools, Western Michigan University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Ann Arbor Schools, the Manchester (MI) Schools, the Anchorage (AK) Schools, Bowling Green State University, WMU (again), the Richmond (IN) Schools and lastly the Huntsville (AL) Schools.
I developed a reputation as a turn-around specialist and my career became one of fixing troubled educational organizations. My specialty is strategic planning. I was referred to as an organizational surgeon. I am very proud to have been recognized, in 1986, as one of the top 100 school executives in the country by the Executive Educator magazine.
Military
One of my regrets is that I didn't accept the officer's commission in the U.S. Navy in the fall of 1962. I got married instead...what was I thinking?!
My second marriage to Meg DuRant, Ph.D. (University of South Carolina) in the mid-70's took me into a family of very senior officers in the U.S. Marine Corps. I developed the greatest respect for each of these men and their friends. They were highly educated, intelligent and thoughtful people who were members of the "Greatest Generation." Whenever I'm in D.C. I carry roses to Arlington National Cemetery to place on each of their graves...and to bend a knee to say a prayer of thanks...Semper Fi!
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Reunions
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