Walter D. “Tom” Thomson II

Wal­ter D. “Tom” Thom­son II, whose fam­ily his­tory has roots in two Delaware County icons, The Delaware Gazette and the Lit­tle Brown Jug har­ness race, died Fri­day (Jan. 20, 2012).

Thom­son, 73, died at home, sur­rounded by his fam­ily. He had been ill for sev­eral months.

Thom­son served as pres­i­dent and pub­lisher of The Delaware Gazette until his retire­ment in 2001 and had been rac­ing direc­tor for the Lit­tle Brown Jug for nearly 40 years.

Thom­son was the fifth gen­er­a­tion of his fam­ily to work at the family-owned Gazette, the longest continuously-owned news­pa­per in the United States. It was pur­chased by Thomson’s great-great grand­fa­ther in 1836. Thom­son, who started out as a news­pa­per deliv­ery boy, even­tu­ally saw his two sons — the sixth gen­er­a­tion —take over oper­a­tion of the paper. The fam­ily even­tu­ally sold the Gazette in 2004.

Under Thomson’s lead­er­ship, the Gazette became a statewide leader among county-seat daily news­pa­pers in news gath­er­ing, print­ing and dis­tri­b­u­tion. Dur­ing the 1990’s, the Gazette was rec­og­nized 26 times by the Asso­ci­ated Press for out­stand­ing news oper­a­tions. In addi­tion, Thomson’s sta­ble of writ­ers, edi­tors and reporters earned dozens of hon­ors and awards.

Thom­son had a num­ber of accom­plish­ments through­out his life includ­ing Pres­i­dent of the Ohio News­pa­per Asso­ci­a­tion from 1996–97 where he served on the Board of Direc­tors for many years. He received the association’s life­time achieve­ment award in 2001. He was Past Pres­i­dent of the Ohio League of Home Daily’s. Also, in 2001 Gov­er­nor Bob Taft rec­og­nized the Thom­son fam­ily as the ‘First Fam­ily of Ohio News­pa­pers’ award. Thom­son was a life­long mem­ber of the First Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Delaware. In his youth Thom­son was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout.

“He believed very strongly in the power of press and the value to a com­mu­nity of hav­ing a strong local voice for the peo­ple,” said his son, Henry Clay “Chip” Thom­son, who with his brother, Thomas Thur­man “T” Thom­son, suc­ceeded his father at the Gazette.

Like­wise, the Lit­tle Brown Jug traces much of its suc­cess to Thomson’s vision­ary approach. Fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of his late father, Henry C. “Hank” Thom­son, Thom­son pointed the Jug toward the 21st Cen­tury, mod­ern­iz­ing the pac­ing clas­sic with­out it los­ing its quaint, Delaware County fair charm and rich tradition.

Asso­ci­ated with the fair since he was a 16-year-old “errand boy,” Thom­son directed all facets of rac­ing since 1973. “He over­saw every­thing that made the Jug one of the most rec­og­nized sport­ing events in the world,” son T Thom­son said.

In the 1980’s, Thom­son was instru­men­tal in mod­ern­iz­ing the fair’s wager­ing sys­tem, infra­struc­ture and was the dri­ving force in the build­ing of the all-weather track. He also brought regional and national tele­vi­sion expo­sure to the Jug and the Delaware com­mu­nity. Thom­son proudly guarded the race’s 60-plus years of his­tory and cus­toms, while con­tin­u­ing to over­see upgrades to the Delaware rac­ing facility.

“My approach has always been if it isn’t bro­ken, don’t fix it,” Thom­son said in 2005. “There is a lot to tra­di­tion, but if it needs to be changed because the sport has changed, I’m will­ing to listen.”

Thom­son was in his 10th term as a Delaware County Fair Board Mem­ber, hav­ing served con­tin­u­ously since 1970. After the pass­ing his father in 1994, he served as pres­i­dent of the Lit­tle Brown Soci­ety, which oper­ated the race for the county fair. He also served the rac­ing indus­try for 13 years as pres­i­dent of the Grand Cir­cuit, har­ness rac­ing ‘major league,’ and was a trustee of the Har­ness Rac­ing Museum and Hall of Fame in Goshen, N.Y.

Thom­son was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Goshen in 2006, join­ing his father, who was inducted in 1989. In 2005, he again joined his father in the Ohio Har­ness Hall of Fame.

Thom­son was proud of his Delaware home, liv­ing in Delaware all his life. After grad­u­at­ing from Willis High School in 1956, he went on to grad­u­ate from The Ohio State Uni­ver­sity School of Jour­nal­ism where he was a mem­ber of Phi Gamma Delta Fra­ter­nity. Thom­son was a Mem­ber of the Delaware Eagles 376 and the Delaware Elks 76. In one his last pub­lic appear­ances in Octo­ber 2011, Thom­son was inducted into the Delaware City Schools Aca­d­e­mic Hall of Fame and received a Dis­tin­guished Alumni Award.

Born Wal­ter Dun­lap Thom­son II on Jan­u­ary 28, 1938 to Henry Clay Thom­son II and Lil­lian Tracewell Thom­son. Thom­son is pre­ceded in death by his par­ents, his sis­ter Joy Thom­son, and his first wife, Helen Uffer­man Thom­son. Thom­son is sur­vived by his wife, Sherry K. Thom­son, sis­ter, Deb­o­rah Thom­son Mark­with, daugh­ters Chris­tine Thom­son Caw­ley, Cheryl Thom­son Wright, sons, Henry Clay “Chip” Thom­son, Thomas Thur­man “T” Thom­son, sons-in law, Thomas Wright and William Caw­ley, daughters-in-law, Mar­garet Oliver Thom­son and Lisa Lun­ney Thom­son. Tom is sur­vived by 10 grand­chil­dren, Thomas Hunter Wright, Madi­son Joy Wright, Macken­zie Lyn Wright, Mary Kathryn Caw­ley, Cheryl Thom­son Caw­ley, Wal­ter D. “Clay” Thom­son, Susan Oliver Thom­son, Helen Uffer­man Thom­son, Zachary Abram Thom­son and Sarah Glynn Thomson.

The fam­ily will receive friends from noon to 2 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 28, 2012 at Asbury United Methodist Church in Delaware. A memo­r­ial ser­vices offi­ci­ated by the Rev. Deb­o­rah Pat­ter­son will fol­low at 2 p.m. Pri­vate bur­ial will be held at Oak Grove Ceme­tery. Memo­r­ial con­tri­bu­tions may be made in Tom’s mem­ory to The Delaware County Fair, 236 Penn­syl­va­nia Ave., Delaware, OH 43015 or The Har­ness Rac­ing Hall of Fame and Museum, 240 Main St., Goshen, NY 10924.

Arrange­ments are being han­dled by Robin­son Funeral Home. Con­do­lences may be expressed online at robinsonfuneralhomeinc.com

Posted by Staff Reports Obits on Jan 23 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.