WWHS ALUMNI PAGE

Rick Thompson ('55)

'Doc Thompson' has played all 24 BNIs

By DAVE MORRISON

Dr. Rick Thompson has held many distinctions in his near 40 years on the golf course.

The one he is proud of is the fact that he is one of the few duffers who have played in all 24 Beckley Newspapers Golf Classics.

And he has been in the championship flight in most of them.

This year Thompson opened with a 72 at Glade Springs - which put him fourth overall - before grinding through the rain for an 81 Saturday at Brier Patch.

"I love the BNI; it's a great, fun tournament," Thompson said Saturday. "I have been in the championship flight. My best finish, I believe, was fifth or sixth a few years ago. But the main thing is it's a lot of fun."

He also plays in the Senior Series in West Virginia.

Thompson, a retired doctor who moved to Bluffton, S.C., just off Hilton Head Island two years ago, also has other reasons he enjoys the BNI.

One of the benefits of the tournament is the fact that he gets to come "home" and visit his mother, Edna Myrtle Thompson, 96, and play three rounds with brother Ralph Thompson.

"It's a treat," Thompson said. "And West Virginia is great in the summertime. Granted, I got tired of the wintertime, but that's why I moved. But I love the state. I went to West Virginia University and met my wife up there."

Now living off Hilton Head offers year-round golf for Thompson, who took up golf out of medical school.

"It gets a little chilly in the winter, January and February," Thompson said. "But you can put on turtlenecks and toboggan if need be and play. It might be 40 to 50 degrees but you can play."

Thompson was a four-sport athlete at Woodrow Wilson in the mid-50s and played on several state championship teams.

He taught radiology in the U.S. Air Force before retiring as a colonel and returning to Beckley in 1976.

"They wanted to make an administrator out of me and I wanted to stay a radiologist," Thompson said.

And what better place to do it than home.

Thompson headed up the Radiology Department at Raleigh General Hospital before retiring in 1999.

Thompson has four children, daughter Terri, a medical legal malpractice lawyer in Austin, Texas, son Doug, a lawyer/CPA in private practice in Atlanta, Ga., Mel, a radiologist in Houston; and Lori, a physical therapist in Fayetteville, N.C.

He also has eight grandchildren.