Eugene Thompson becoming the first black assistant area superintendent in DeKalb County Schools was no small feat. Friends, relatives and former coworkers say his work desegregating the school district was his crowning moment.
Thompson, 84, died July 12 in Southfield, Mich., after an extended illness.
“He was a stickler for education,” his niece Alice Hosey from Detroit said. “He was always interested in us doing well in school and community work.”
Thompson, who was born and raised in Clarksburg, W.Va., got his bachelor’s degree from Fort Valley State University, then his master’s degree from Columbia University in New York. He returned to Georgia, where he began working for the DeKalb County Schools in 1963 as a physical education teacher at Bruce Street School. He later became the coordinator for physical education for the entire district before accepting a job as an assistant area superintendent.
He came to that job just as the district was under federal supervision to make sure it followed desegregation protocols.
In the heat of desegregation efforts, superintendent Robert Freeman appointed Thompson director of affirmative development, a key role in ensuring smooth relations as the district became fully desegregated.
“He was a role model,” said Melvin Johnson, chairman of the DeKalb County Board of Education, who worked alongside Thompson in the district. “Not only for blacks, but whites as well. They saw him not as black, but as a leader. That’s really key here. And they respected him as a leader.”
Thompson was very warm, which was inviting during such a turbulent moment in the district’s history, Johnson said.
“But,” Johnson said, “he would tell it like it is, too.”
Survivors include a sister, Josephine Knighton, and a daughter, Monique Thompson in Texas.
Funeral services for Thompson will begin with a family hour Thursday at 10 a.m. at Swanson Funeral Home, 14751 McNichols Road in Detroit. The funeral will begin at 11. Interment will be at United Memorial Garden Cemetery in Superior Township.
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