Obituary of James Thompson

James Lee Thompson (83) went to be with his Lord and Savior on September 6, 2013, following a battle with Parkinson's that he fought with courage and grace. James was born to Frank and Mary Thompson on November 15, 1929 in Canute, Oklahoma. James moved to Tulsa from Canute at the age of six where he attended Will Rogers High School, graduating in 1948. James attended Southern Nazarene University and graduated in1952 with the first B.S. in Chemistry granted by that institution. Furthering his education, he did graduate work at TU, OSU, UCLA, Texas A.M. and Penn State. He was employed by Sinclair Oil as a Senior Research Chemist in Surfactant Chemistry, Dow Chemical in Midland MI. as a Product/Cost Optimization Analyst and at Dowell Research in Tulsa. After retirement, he worked as a consultant for Dowell-Schlumberger in Tulsa and Sugarland, TX with surfactant development in Oilfield Applications. Professional associations include the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the Research Advisory Committee for the Texas Oil Recovery Advisory Panel at the University of Texas and served as a consultant to an Advisory Committee at the University of Colorado. James was an author / co-author of many SPE technical papers. His laboratory research yielded ten new surfactant formulations out of which ten U.S. Patents and twenty foreign patents were issued. He was a faithful and active member of Central Church of the Nazarene for 44 years. In his leisure time he and his wife, Nancy enjoyed extensive travel both in the U.S and abroad during their 58 years of marriage. James is survived by his wife, Nancy and three children: Jim of San Diego, CA, Tim and wife Lori of Broken Arrow, OK, and Rodney and wife Carol of Sierra Madre, CA. Visitation will be held at Ninde Brookside Funeral Home from 5 pm - 7 pm on Tuesday, September 10. Service will be held at 2:00 pm Wednesday, September 11 at Central Church of the Nazarene. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Parkinson Voice Project 500 N. Coit Rd., Suite 2085, Richardson, TX 75080 .