John Fairfield Thompson was a metallurgist who became President and later Chairman of Inco Limited.
[1] Thompson was born a Unitarian in Portland, Maine, in 1881,[2] and attended Columbia University's School of Mines, receiving a Bachelor's degree in 1903 and a Ph.D. in 1906,[1] for his work on Platinum-Silver alloys.
[5] Thompson, Manitoba was named in his honour because it was discovered in 1956 by the airborne magnetometer that he championed at INCO.
[1] Recipient of the Thomas Egleston Medal,[7] he is the subject of a photograph deposited at the Smithsonian Institution.
[9] In 2001 the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame inducted him,[6] and in 2011 the Thompson Manitoba community clock was erected in his honour.