Dr. Layton Spencer Thompson

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Obituary- Thompson, Layton

Layton S. Thompson

Former Montana State University professor, Layton S. Thompson, Bozeman, Mont, died at his home
Sunday, March 3, 1991 of cancer. He was 84.

He was born June 17, 1906, near Delia, the son of Ludwig and Ella Keller Thompson. He graduated from Delia High School in 1923.

He farmed for two years and taught five years in rural schools in Kansas before moving to Fort Collins, Colo., where he worked on farms for six years. He graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in economics in 1939.

He moved to Bozeman where he received his Master's degree in 1940 from Montana State College. He received his doctorate from Michigan State University in 1953. He taught in the Agricultural Economics and Economics Department at Montana State University for 30 years, retiring in 1973.

He represented the university on the Great Plains Agricultural Council for 25 years, helped to establish an appraisal system for farm lands and conducted schools for land appraisers. He made extensive studies of tax structures in four states and wrote bulletins which were used by state legislators. He also authored many publications. He served on three foreign agricultural economic assignments, in El Salvador, Guatemala and Argentina.

He was an active member of Bozeman United Methodist Church, Sons of Norway and Retired Teachers Association. He enjoyed his family, gardening, carpentry work, camping and traveling. He wrote and published his autobiography and a genealogical history of the Thompson family.

In August of 1939, he married Margaret Mellon of Fort Collins, Colo. She survives.

Other survivors include a son, Edward Thompson; three daughters, Marilyn Washington, Washington, D.C., Betty Wing, Missoula, Mont., and Nancy Flikkema, Bozeman, Mt.; two sisters, Rosa Fuller, Santa Maria, Calif., and Cecile Zlatnik, St Marys; three brothers, Alfred Thompson, Riverside, Calif., Eugene Thompson, Topeka, and Samuel Thompson, Rossville.

Funeral services were held March 7, at Bozeman United Methodist Church.

Memorials may be made to the Bozeman United Methodist Church, 109 W. Olive St., or to the Gallatin Hospice, 915 Highland Blvd., Boze¬man, Mont. 59715.