Biography of Gary Hugh Thompson

Gary was born to Hugh and Mavis Thompson in Barbour County of Philippi, West Virginia on November 29th, 1950. Gary is known to all as a hunting enthusiast.  He started hunting with his dad in the mountains of West Virginia when he was very young.  They hunted for everything from squirrels to deer.  He has since passed down this skill and adventurous spirit  to his children.

At the age of 14, Gary worked alongside his father at Wilmouth Dodge in Belington, West Virginia. Gary has a great love for cars and motorcycles. To this day, he knows every make and year of car made before 1970. Gary attended high school at Phillip Barbour High School in Philippi, WV and graduated in May of 1968.

After graduation, Gary moved to the Washington, D. C. area, working for Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company  of Maryland when he was 17 years old. The communications trade interested him like no other occupation. He stuck with it throughout his life. Gary became very knowledgeable about technical systems within the telephone industry.

Gary went into the Army when he was nineteen. He was stationed at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico as a communications specialist. Gary was transferred to Holloman Air Force  Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico to provide communication support to the Air Force. He was also assigned to temporary duty as communications support for an artillery battalion in  Blanding, Utah. In May of 1972, Gary received an honorable discharge from the Army because he wanted to change his way of life to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Gary went back to his job for C & P Telephone, working in Poolsville, Maryland.  After a few months, he transferred to C & P Telephone of West Virginia, working in Philippi, West Virginia.  One year later, Gary left the telephone industry to pursue the full-time ministry, supporting himself by working part-time as a logger.  In 1976, he moved to Mexico, Maine and took a job for Al Casey as a logger for one year. He met  Laurel Ann Havey and they were married November 27th, 1976.  In 1977, Gary got a job with Oxford County Telephone Company in Buckfield, Maine.

Gary and Laurel lived together in Maine for two years. They decided to move to Alaska where there was a need for more of Jehovah's Witnesses in remote, isolated areas. Things worked out perfectly when Cordova Telephone Cooperative in Cordova, Alaska offered him a job as the central office technician. Gary and Laurel stayed in Cordova for twenty-two years.

While in Cordova, they bore three children; Seth on April 21st, 1980, Bethany on October 12th,1981 and Iris on April 19th, 1996.  Gary opened three businesses; The Open Shutter,  The Queen's Chair Bed & Breakfast, and Alaska Computer Specialists.  The computer business eventually became a family business including computer sales, consulting, programming, repair, graphic design, Web design and video editing.

In November of 2000, Alaska Power & Telephone (AP&T) in Craig, Alaska offered Gary the General Manager's position of the telephone division for Prince of Wales Island. That is where he resides today, along with his family; Laurel, Seth, Bethany and Iris Thompson.

By Bethany Thompson, daughter