Edgecumbe High School in Sitka and attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks as a civil engineering major.

The next year as executive director of Hickel's North Commission, Thompson began working on a network of transportation routes to open rural Alaska to development.

[5] When President Nixon named Hickel to serve as Secretary of the Interior in 1969, Thompson went to Washington, D.C., as special assistant for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In both Interior jobs, Thompson was deeply involved in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act adopted in December 1971.

He died with his wife and daughter in the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 on January 31, 2000, while flying back to the United States.

[11] The Alaska Federation of Natives altered one of its web pages to warn e-mail users about the scheme.