FITCHBURG, Mass.–A long-time reporter and writer who wrote extensively on credit unions–including three books–has died. Paul D. Thompson, a Ford Foundation early admission scholarship winner who entered the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1952 at the age of 15 and who spent many years with CUNA, died at age 82.
In 1986, Thompson joined as speechwriter for the leadership and as a writer of press releases and annual reports. He retired in 1998. During his retirement, Thompson self-published three books on credit unions, including "Development of the Modern U.S. Credit Union Movement: 1970-2010." This won the 2014 Individual Achievement Award of the Credit Union Development Education program of the National Credit Union Foundation.
Thompson began his career as a police and fire reporter for the Montgomery Alabama Advertiser, and then as a general assignment reporter and copy editor for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. He married another 1959 Ford Foundation early admissions scholar, Evelyn Thut, who became his wife.
Thompson also worked as a writer and then editor-in-chief for Visual Education Consultants, later Education Industries, a Madison firm producing current event filmstrips for schools.
Thompson is survived by his wife, Evelyn; daughters, Elizabeth and Gwen Thompson; niece and nephew, Brian and Reggie Harris; and numerous other nieces and nephews.