Los Angeles County
Biographies
W.
GAYLE THOMPSON, M. D.
In
the comparatively short period of seven years, Dr. Gayle W. Thompson has
achieved an important place in the medical profession in the San Gabriel
Valley. After considerable schooling,
training and internship, he started to practice in Alhambra in 1954, and now
maintains offices for the practice of General Medicine and Surgery at 24 North
Garfield Avenue in Alhambra.
Dr.
Thompson was born on November 11, 1926, in the old Alhambra Hospital in
Alhambra, California. His parents,
Joseph A. and Blanche Virginia (Bulman) Thompson,
natives of Virginia, are residents of San Marino. Dr. Thompson’s father, Mr. Joseph A.
Thompson, is senior Accountant with Richfield Oil Company, and active in the
Alhambra Baptist Church. He was Sunday
School Superintendent from 1935 to 1955.
His mother, Blanche V. Thompson, also takes a very active interest in
church affairs.
Dr.
Thompson attended Stoneman and Huntington Elementary
Schools in San Marino and was graduated from South Pasadena High School in
1944, after which he attended Carroll College in Helena, Montana. He continued his studies in World War II in
the Navy Training Program. He
participated in the Navy V-12 Program from 1944 to 1945. He was a medical officer at Oak Knoll Navy
Hospital in Oakland, California; he participated as Destroyer Division Doctor
with Task Force 77 in the Korean War, and also served in the Pearl Harbor
area. After his return from war duty, he
continued his studies at Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he received
his Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1947, and his Doctor of Medicine Degree from the
University of Southern California School of Medicine
in 1952. He served his internship in
Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California. On September 15, 1954, he opened his own
offices practicing General Medicine and Surgery at 2 North Garfield Avenue in
Alhambra.
Professional
and other affiliations of Dr. Thompson are numerous and important. He is a member of the American Medical
Association, the California Medical Association, the Los Angeles County medical
Association, the San Gabriel Valley District and the American Academy of
General Practice. He also holds
memberships in the American Geriatrics Society, and the American Society of
Abdominal Surgeons. He is the Medical
Advisor for the Southern California Baptist Home for the Aged in Alhambra and
is a past president of the medical staff of the Alhambra Community
Hospital. He is a member of Phi Gamma
Delta, national social fraternity and Phi Rho Sigma, national medical
fraternity. For several years Dr.
Thompson has been a member of the Y.M.C.A. and has been a member of the Rotary
Club of Alhambra.
Dr.
Thompson married Miss Beverly Van Antwerp of South Pasadena, on April 3, 1951,
in a ceremony which took place in the Alhambra Baptist Church. Mrs. Thompson is active in the Parent
Teachers Association and in Cub Scout work.
With her talent and training in the art of interior decorating, Dr. and
Mrs. Thompson designed and planned their new home in South Pasadena with great
care. It was written up in the Los
Angeles Times newspaper in 1959 and twice again in 1961, for its outstanding
beauty of design. Dr. and Mrs.
Thompson’s two children are Dale E. Thompson, a potential swimming champion,
who was born on October 25, 1952, and David A. Thompson, who was
born on October 7, 1954. Both boys
attend the Marengo Elementary School in South Pasadena.
The
Thompson’s are members of the First Baptist Church of South Pasadena, where Dr.
Thompson is Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
For over ten years he was tenor soloist in the choir of the First Baptist
Church of Alhambra, and now is the tenor soloist in the choir of the First
Baptist Church of South Pasadena.
Through
the Frist Baptist Church, Dr. Thompson became aware of World Vision, an
international, interdenominational Christian organization with headquarters in
Pasadena. Dr. Thompson is now serving as
a medical advisor for this world-wide organization. As representatives of World Vision, Inc., Dr.
and Mrs. Thompson and a group of fifty businessmen and women, who financed
their own trip, took part in the Tokyo Christian Crusade, a program designed to
present a logical approach to Christianity in a personal way. All participants were on this four weeks long
work and vacation trip to the Orient with the basic thought of presenting
Christianity personally to Japanese laymen, and of introducing them to the
activities of the church, by making personal contacts with Japanese businessmen
in their shops, offices, and homes.
Group meetings were arranged for the exchange of information as well as
for social contacts, including delightful entertainment and singing. Up to 14,000 people attended the nightly
meetings at the Meiji Sports Arena, and many thousands had to be turned away
because of lack of space. A message by
Dr. Bob Pierce of World Vision was given at these large
scale meetings, and a musical program was presented by the Japanese Imperial
Orchestra and a choir of 850 voices, directed by Ralph Carmichael. After a short visit to Hawaii, Dr. and Mrs.
Thompson had the opportunity in Taipei, Formosa, to meet the orphan they had
been sponsoring. During their stay they
went on an inspection tour of the leper colonies, hospitals, tuberculosis
sanitariums and clinics. In Hong Kong,
China, they were impressed with the examples of Christian service shown by the
missionaries, who were among our greatest ambassadors in the Communist
encircled city, serving under adverse conditions, amid dire poverty, filth and
disease. In Manila and the northern part
of Luzon, in the Philippine Islands, they took similar inspections tours. There they also had the good fortune to renew
the friendship with a young Filipino missionary, who had lived with them for a
while in their South Pasadena home.
The
trip of Dr. and Mrs. Thompson is over, but the Tokyo Christian Crusade will
forever leave its mark in furthering better understanding and relations between
the United States and their Oriental friends through their work, which has as
its goal Christian love. New projects of
this nature are in the planning stage.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Historical Volume &
Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel &
Temple City, by Robert P. Studer, Pages 399-402,
Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California.
1962.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES