Though I had never ventured this deep into the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, Arizona, as I looked at the rock jutting over the path, I felt like I had been here before. Then I realized: I had seen this site in the infamous Arboretum Picnic pictures. I say “infamous” only because my grandfather, William […]
Archives for May 2011
Palatial Party Boat Was Converted Into Lean-Mean-Fighting Machine
Little did grandmother Meanie know as she snacked on the decks of her uncle-in-law’s party boat, the Alder, that those same decks would years later come under daily fire from Japanese warplanes. That’s right, William Boyce Thompson’s 294-foot-long yacht, the Alder, which he used to sail to cushy ports around the world, was donated to the U.S. Navy […]
Jimmy Filor and His Family Died in Plane Crash
Tony Thompson vividly remembers the day in 1951 when his uncle, Jimmy Filor, died in a plane crash. “I remember coming home from swimming at the Bronxville Field Club to find my mother in tears after having learned that Pop’s cousin, who they were very fond of, had crashed, along with his wife and two […]