Robert Thompson

Dr. Robert R. Thompson, M.D. graduated from Thomas Jefferson University Medical School in 1965. After an internship in Akron, Ohio he joined the US Public Health Service and was sent to Alaska. He and his wife, Martha spent two years in remote Alaskan villages. Having adjusted to life in the arctic they decided to return, with their two sons, Andrew and Peter, to Minnesota where a third son Paul was born. Dr. Thompson completed one year of a psychiatry residency at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and then opted for rural family practice. During his career Dr. Thompson served as hospice consultant for a community hospital and eventually worked in a federal medical prison taking care of the terminally ill. The Thompson’s youngest son, Paul, was killed in a traffic accident in 1989 at the age of eighteen. The family was devastated by the loss but with the help of family, friends, church, and a national organization known as The Compassionate Friends eventually were able to adjust to this loss and return to a normal life forever marked by the experience. After retirement, Dr. Thompson decided he could help others who have lost children by describing the healing journey Martha and he took after Paul’s death. "Remembering:The Death of a Child" describes that journey and provides hope and healing for other parents and siblings who have lost a child.

Articles:

Shadow of Grief Still Lurks, 20 Years Later

By Bob Thompson — Although we know that after a loss the acute state of mourning will subside, we also know we remain inconsolable and will never find a substitute. […]

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