Benjamin Hunter Thompson (1904-1997) received the national level Pugsley Medal in 1957 “in recognition of his outstanding, imaginative, dedicated, and enthusiastic leadership in the field of park conservation.” He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was one of five children. His father was a pastor of several congregations in the Presbyterian Church. Thompson’s grandfather worked on and lived on a ranch managed by Thompson’s father.
During the summers Thompson worked as a waiter in the Awahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park and developed a life-long love of the national parks during these Yosemite summers. The grandeur of the park and the deep friendship he developed with George Wright (Pugsley Medal 1936), who was an assistant naturalist there at that time, were the origins of that life pursuit.
Later in 1932 Thompson became a full-time employee of the NPS. The first couple of years of his career were divided between being a wildlife survey office biologist and a park ranger-naturalist at Yellowstone. The survey office was created by George Wright and included Thompson and Joseph S. Dixon. Wright’s purpose in forming the office was to conduct preliminary surveys of the status of wildlife and to identify urgent wildlife problems in the national parks. In each park, effort was made to determine original and present wildlife conditions, identify causes of adverse changes, and recommend actions that would restore park wildlife to its original natural condition, insofar as possible.
While Thompson was still in the NPS, he served with distinction on the Federal Inter-Agency Committee on Recreation, was treasurer and vice president of the National Conference on State Parks (NCSP), and chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Federal Recreation of the National Recreation Association. His extensive work with these organizations over the years resulted in enhanced coordination and cooperation among the NPS, other federal agencies, and the various state park systems.