Mat Roy Thompson

Mat Roy Thompson (February 8, 1874 – June 8, 1962), known also as Matt Roy Thompson, Matthew R. Thompson, Mathew R. Thompson, M. Roy Thompson, Roy Thompson, and Leroy Thompson, was a civil engineer and architect who worked on a great variety of construction and development projects across the United States, most notably on Scotty's Castle, the Death Valley mansion of eccentric millionaire Albert Mussey Johnson.

Biography

Early years Thompson was born Leroy Thompson in Dunlap, Iowa, in 1874, the son of George Washington Thompson, a real estate broker of comfortable, if moderate, means, and his wife Susan Forrer. Thompson's father moved his real estate business to Tacoma, Washington while Thompson was still very young, and so it was in the state of Washington that Thompson grew up. In 1890, upon reaching the age of sixteen, Thompson graduated from high school and promptly enrolled in the Rose Polytechnic Institute of Technology, an engineering and technical school in Terre Haute, Indiana.

When Stanford University opened its doors to students for the first time one year later in 1891, Thompson happily enrolled as a sophomore, one of only eleven upper classmen As such, Hiram did not look kindly on Bessie's engagement to a less wealthy man. When Thompson's father lost what moderate wealth he had in the Panic of 1893, Bessie was forced to break off her engagement to Thompson and transfer from Stanford University to Cornell University on the opposite side of the United States. and were looking for architects and engineers to help them materialize their dream.

In 1924, Mat Thompson, Mat Roy's eldest son, had taken a job as a Work Secretary for a YMCA Boys in Portland, Oregon. Bessie thought it was ugly and was greatly pleased when Thompson presented her with a series of sketches that redesigned the stucco box as a Spanish revival-style hacienda, somewhat reminiscent of the style of the buildings the two of them had seen at Stanford. Mere weeks later, construction at Death Valley Ranch ended due to Johnson's financial difficulties and a land ownership dispute. In 1947, late in Johnson's life, he tried to call back Thompson to oversee the completion of the swimming pool, though nothing came of it. to take up employment with the Metropolitan Water District and work on the new Los Angeles Colorado River Aqueduct.

Thereafter, Thompson turned his engineering focus to military and defense contracts. He helped plan and lay out a number of military bases worldwide, including Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. He died of natural causes near his boyhood home in Tacoma, Washington, on June 8, 1962, at the age of eighty-eight.

Controversial personal life Portrait of a young Bessie Penniman in 1892, during her courtship with Thompson at Stanford.

Bessie and Thompson's romance Many people in Thompson's life, his children and first wife included, were of the opinion that Thompson never really got over his first love, Bessie Johnson, née Penniman. The extent and frequency of the correspondence between the pair caused many of their acquaintances to be suspicious of the nature of Thompson and Bessie's friendship, particularly in light of the lifelong disabilities Albert Johnson acquired in a train accident in 1899, a few years after his marriage to Bessie. Many thought Bessie to be unfulfilled without the children she might otherwise have had, and in seeking to direct her energies elsewhere, therefore more inclined to dwell nostalgically on the relationships of her past.

The confession To some extent, Thompson seems to have confirmed a number of the commonly held suspicions about himself and Bessie. Although generally a discreet man who kept his personal business to himself, the truth of the matter may have been too much for him to bear, and he confessed his feelings for Bessie in a letter to his then-wife Patience O'Hara. Patience describes the letter thus:

Johnson's involvement Still others felt that some of the most compelling evidence for a secret romance between Thompson and his Bessie was provided by Albert Johnson himself in his treatment of Thompson. Young Mat and his sister Patience agreed that Johnson displayed at times hostile behavior towards their father. In a joint interview they asserted:

Indeed, Thompson was commissioned in 1941 by Johnson to complete a series of drawings of portions of Scotty's Castle for inclusion in a tourist booklet written by Bessie for the castle's tourists. As is common practice for artists, Thompson unobtrusively included his initials in the design of each picture. By the time the booklet was printed, however, his initials had been removed from all the images but one, which young Mat speculated may have been well-enough disguised as part of the design that they were overlooked. State Highway Superintendent, Washington (1915 – 1917) Layout of Thousand Oaks, Berkeley, California. Railroad Appraisal Engineer Roosevelt Base, Terminal Island, California Between 1913 and 1914 Thompson toured the United States in a Model T to examine local road systems nationwide to get ideas about what kind of roads would be both most well-suited for automobiles and most well-suited for Pierce County itself.

Thompson's name There is a great deal of confusion surrounding Thompson's name. Thompson's birth name in 1874 was Leroy Thompson. The boy then known as Leroy, or often simply "Roy", lacked the middle name that was the fashion of the time. A relative of Thompson's, whom some sources say was his cousin and others say was his uncle, felt it would be more appropriate for young Roy to have the more fashionable three names. This relative, who was himself named Mat, proposed to Roy that he take on the name "Mat" in exchange for the gift of a pony, which he would receive upon reaching the age of 21. Thompson happily complied and allowed his name to be changed to Mat Roy. However, as the name Mat was a late addition, it remained fairly superfluous throughout most of Thompson's early life, with his family and close friends continuing to refer to him simply as Roy.

Thompson began to embrace his full name once he became an adult, and began billing himself as M. Roy Thompson in professional settings. In the late 1930s, the fashion for names shifted, and it became standard practice for men to refer to themselves in the formula of "First name, middle initial, last name" rather than the previous formula which placed the emphasis on the middle name. Thompson began to refer to himself as Mat R. Thompson, but to his dismay, he quickly discovered that this version of his name led to great confusion. Secretaries, bookkeepers, and acquaintances of his all assumed that his name "Mat" was a nickname, and began referring to him both verbally and on written record as Matt R. Thompson, Matthew R. Thompson, and Mathew R. Thompson, all incorrect. To further complicate matters, when Thompson later attempted to turn his engineering skills to national defense work, the birth certificate he obtained for his background check by the government listed him under his legal birth name, Leroy Thompson, a name which had no bearing whatsoever on the names he was now known by.

To clear things up once and for all, Thompson pursued the legal change of his name to Matthew Roy Thompson. This name was, however, also the name Thompson had given his third son upon his birth in 1900. Thompson and his son, Mat, liked to joke that in spite of Thompson being the elder of the two men, Mat was in fact "Matthew R. Thompson, Sr.", and Thompson was "Matthew R. Thompson, Jr." because of the order in which they had been named.