Lawrence E. Thompson 1919-2005

BOSTON – Lawrence E. Thompson, an expert in finance and taxation and a member of the Harvard Business School (HBS) faculty from 1951 until his retirement in 1981, died at his home in Lincoln, Massachusetts, on March 11th. He was 85 years old.

Thompson was a bulwark of Harvard’s required first-year MBA course in Finance and served as course head several times, but his intellectual curiosity also led him to teach courses in a variety of fields, including Control, Managerial Economics, and others focusing on the macroeconomic environment and social responsibility. In all his classroom assignments, Thompson was well known for his genuine concern for the moral values of his students and for his emphasis on the role of public interest in the corporate world.

Born in Los Angeles on June 22nd, 1919, Lawrence Evans Thompson grew up in South Pasadena and graduated from South Pasadena High School as valedictorian of his class. A child of the Great Depression, he recalled in a 1991 interview that his academic interests and professional pursuits were greatly affected by his coming of age during this unstable time. His father was a petroleum engineer who had lost his job when the company he worked for went bankrupt, but he eventually found a position in the federal government. It was this experience that in later years made Thompson an advocate of interventionist government policies and instilled in him his powerful sense of social responsibility.

After graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth in 1941, Thompson enlisted in the U.S. Navy. His initial duties involved teaching seamanship to Navy midshipmen in Chicago – an assignment he was unhappy with in the midst of World War II. “It was an easy life,” he once recalled, “and it made me more and more guilty.” Volunteering for submarine duty, he spent the remaining years of the war on combat patrols with the Pacific Fleet. One encounter left his submarine lying at the bottom of the South China Sea for six hours while enemy destroyers crisscrossed overhead firing depth charges.

Soon after the war, Thompson enrolled at Harvard University and received a master’s degree in Public Administration in 1947, a master’s in Economics a year later, and a Ph.D. in Economics in 1951. While writing his dissertation, he did research with HBS finance professor J. Keith Butters – a project that led to a coauthored book titled Effects of Taxation on Investments by Individuals. As a result of this collaboration, he joined the HBS faculty as an assistant professor. He became an associate professor in 1956 and a full professor in 1961.

Thompson was especially proud of his course development efforts. “We were always trying to develop cases that would keep students abreast of a changing field and heighten their interest,” he said. In 1991, Harvard Business School presented him with a Distinguished Service Award for his contributions.

Thompson participated in management programs around the globe and taught for two years at the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. He also served as associate editor of the National Tax Journal from 1951 to 1956 and as editor from 1957 to 1966.

From 1969 to 1971, Thompson took a brief leave of absence from HBS to serve as a senior vice president of Eastern Gas and Fuel Associates (later Eastern Enterprises), where he developed a plan for an environmentally sound solid waste disposal system for large cities. In addition, he was a director of various other companies, including Costar Corporation and Bentley Publishers in Boston as well as Warburtons Ltd. in the United Kingdom.

A resident of Lincoln, Massachusetts, from 1960 until his death, Thompson was active in community affairs, serving as a member and chairman of the Lincoln finance committee for several years and as a trustee and director of the Emerson Hospital in nearby Concord.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Dorothy Abbott Thompson son, Elliott C., of Concord; a daughter, Christina A, of Lincoln; a sister, Barbara Martin, of California; and six grandchildren. He was also the father of the late Susan L. Inman.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Dartmouth College Fund, Dartmouth College, c/o Gift Recording Office, 6066 Development Office, Hanover, NH 03755-3555.