His father was a wealthy textile manufacturer; his mother was the daughter of James Harrison Wilson (1837–1925), a noted Union general during the American Civil War.

[5] Post-graduate studies followed at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Architecture, but he did not complete his degree at this institution due to his weakness in calculus.

During this period, he led an active social life and sat on the board of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

[10] At the height of the Second World War, Thompson was recruited by Major General William Joseph Donovan (1883–1959) to serve as an operative in the OSS.

The group had the support of Pridi Panomyong, the regent to King Ananda Mahidol of Thailand, and Seni Pramoj, the Thai ambassador to the United States.

[8] In the spring of 1946, Thompson went to work as a military attaché at the United States legation for his former Princeton classmate Charles Woodruff Yost, the US Minister to Thailand.

The firm achieved a coup in 1951 when designer Irene Sharaff made use of Thai silk fabrics for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I.

Besides inventing the bright jewel tones and dramatic color combinations today associated with Thai silk, Thompson raised thousands of Thailand's poorest people out of poverty.

Using parts of old up-country houses – some as old as a hundred years – Thompson succeeded in constructing a masterpiece that involved the reassembling of six Thai dwellings on his estate.

Decorating his rooms were Chinese blue-and-white Ming pieces, Belgian glass, Cambodian carvings, Victorian-era chandeliers, Benjarong earthenware, Thai stone images, Burmese statues, and a dining table which was once used by King Rama V of Thailand.

Known for its architecture and historical significance, the site is popular for tourists, featuring in the top 5 must-visit places in Bangkok according to TripAdvisor's 2022 rankings.

His disappearance from the hill station generated one of the largest land searches in Southeast Asian history and remains one of the most famous mysteries in the region.