Robert Thompson:
CLASS OF 1965
Colegio Americano High SchoolClass of 1965
Caracas,
Robert's Story
My family was originally from Dallas where I was born in 1947. My father was one of the original Mobil Oil guys having started with the Magnolia Oil Company in 1927 that was bought by Vacuum Oil that later merged with SOCONY and eventually changed its name to Mobil. When I was 4 we moved to Calgary but that didn't pan out (the Alberta Oil Sands were a long way from being viable) so after a year we went to Billings, Montana. After 5 years my father got a job in the home office so we went on to a new house in Rye, New York. When my grandmother died in 1960 my father decided to accept a position with Mobil Oil de Venezuela and off we went that summer. Before we boarded the Santa Rosa to steam to Caracas, as so many of us did, Trujillo tried to assassinate Romulo Betancourt and we had to stay in a hotel in NYC for several weeks until the Venezuelans opened their border again to foreigners. But eventually I got to Caracas and joined the 8th grade at Campo Alegre. At Campo I made many friends and quickly grew to love Caracas. However, when I asked my father to send me on to a prep school at the end of 9th grade (as most of us were oriented to do) he said "you haven't even learned how to speak Spanish well" and I went on to Colegio Americano where eventually I graduated in 1965. Only a few of us from Campo went on to Colegio but my two best friends from those days Mark Siegeltuch and Tony Mock were among them. Staying in Caracas for those additional 3 years at Colegio had a profound effect on my future.
After graduation in 1965 everyone went their separate ways and I decided to go to SMU in Dallas. I didn't adjust well and had a bad freshman year but that made it necessary to stay at SMU since my grades were none too good. But eventually I prevailed and went on to graduate. Soon thereafter I married while in my first year of Law School at SMU. That was too much for me and the marriage so after the first year I quit and went to work for the Dallas Better Business Bureau and my wife as an English teacher at a local school district.
After three years the overseas life beckoned, Together with Joe Mock and his brother Tony (married to Nancy Wyman) who had been in Houston for several years, we concocted a plan to go to Spain and begin a school (their mother had left Caracas in 1964 for Madrid where she was principal at the American School of Madrid). This came to pass and we (sponsored by a group of overseas school heads) started a study program in conjunction with the Dade County schools bringing high school students from Florida to El Escorial near Madrid in the summer and to Nerja near Malaga in the winter. The year was 1973 and we were able to continue this until 1976. But things were none too easy, so in that year we abandoned the year round operation and went to summers only centered in Segovia, Spain. So finding real employment became a dilemma for us all in order for us to support our summer hobby. Beginning after a two year stint as a stock broker back in Billings, I returned to an overseas career with international schools. First I was Business Manager at a start up school in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, for several years. From there I went to Singapore to run a boarding program for a year. Both were operations of International school Services of Princeton, NJ.
Next stop was New Delhi, India were I taught from 1985 to 1990 at the American Embassy School. This was a seemingly ideal situation and my wife and I enjoyed ourselves greatly but toward the end of that time my wife and I split. So in 1990 I went back to Segovia by myself ready to restart the International High School in Spain as a year round operation. Many dollars later and with the advent of the first Gulf War this ve...Expand for more
nture failed and I gave up on that part of my past.
But going back to Segovia did have an unexpected bonus. I married Maria Teresa Gaeta-Arejola a teacher there in 1991. But she was a teacher with a Caracas connection. She rode in the Suburban van with me everyday to school during my Senior year at Colegio Americano. Of course, she was in fourth grade and in the Spanish speaking Primaria.
She went on after that year to Buffalo, NY, where her father became a professor of mathematics for many years. She grew up there becoming an American citizen and learning to speak English like a native. After university she married but a few years later they broke up so she and her 3 young children ended up in Spain. Eight years later Teresa was assigned to Segovia as an English teacher for the Spanish Ministry of Education. Since she was always at her parent's beach house in the summer she never met with our American group of teachers, but when I stayed on in August of 1990 we were introduced.
We married in 1991 and in 1992, after closing the International High School in Spain, I took the job of principal at the American School of Valencia. Then in 1995 I moved on to be the Director General of the huge and unstable Colegio Americano of Guayaquil located in an even more unstable Ecuador. That lasted for 2 years and with thanks for escaping with our lives we moved to the Canary Islands where I became the head of the American School of Las Palmas. At the end of this period with all three children in University, more money became a real need, so Teresa and I moved to Tunis where I took over the American school there. After four years we moved again to Aleppo and are now I begin my fifth school year as head of school.
We have a home in Torrecaballeros, just north of Segovia city (about 80 kilometers north of Madrid). Our oldest Mikhael is in Madison, WI, and is a computer programmer (when he is not pursuing his real love acting). Suraya after traveling around exploring the world is now settled in London. Andrea is still in the Canaries pursuing a career in entertainment (she is a clown). Teresa has just reassumed her position as funcionaria with the Spanish Ministry of Education, as she needs to return to the career she abandoned 18 years ago if she is to get a proper retirement with all the benefits that government employees receive. So she is at home in Torrecaballeros for the 09-10 school year.
Needless to say Teresa and I are both Third Culture Kids who have never stopped the wandering we began when were young. Like many others that I have met over the years, TCKs have more in common even if they are different nationalities than they are likely to find if they return to their old friends in their home countries. We all know that vacant distracted look that happens soon after beginning to talk of your experiences overseas to anyone but a close relative. Many of us chose to stick with the TCKs and return overseas. That has led to lots of advantages and disadvantages - but overall most of us find our way. As you might imagine, Teresa and I have adopted Spain and really can't imagine ending up permanently anywhere than there.
If any of you are in the Madrid area during July be sure and let us know. We would love to see you and catch up on old times. Tony and Nancy Mock have visited us in Segovia and Joe (now Father Charles) visit on occasion as well. My brothers Rich (along with daughters and friend), Allen (along with his retinue and wife Patti) Jim (along with Linda and my stepmother Carmen) have visited in recent summers. With Teresa staying in Segovia the temptation is to take permanent residence there myself. We shall see when I throw in the towel on overseas school directing!
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