The Board of Directors of the Boyce Thompson Arboretum called a special meeting after long-time director Franklin Crider died on August 24, 1953. Shortly after, Joe E. Thompson, Jr., nephew of the Arboretum’s founder, William Boyce Thompson, telephoned acting director Bernard “Bill” Benson from Boston to say he wanted to attend the meeting. Thompson told Benson to pick him up in Phoenix and drive him to the meeting. “Not ‘asked’ but ‘told,’” writes historian Sylvia Lee in her history of the Arboretum.
“On September, 18th, Benson drove to Phoenix and collected Joe Jr. Just as the two were approaching the gate to the arboretum, Joe Jr. told Benson that he, Joe Jr., was to be the new director of the arboretum, and not Benson. Benson was astounded because he had been led to believe, apparently by Gibson, that the position would be offered to him. At the meeting, it was decided to name Naomi Gibson [Bill’s wife] as director until the end of the calendar year when Joe Jr. would take over the directorship. Benson was kept in the position of assistant director.”
It’s unclear what strings Joe, Jr. pulled to land the job, but he became managing director on New Year’s Day, 1954. He and his wife moved into the so-called Crider House. The couple were empty nesters by this time — their children no longer lived with them. In one of his first actions, Joe took Harold “Harry” McBride off his grounds work and put him in charge of maintaining the Crider House. Joe Jr. frequently had painting, repairs, or changes done on the house.
Nepotism may have been at work in Joe Jr.’s appointment, but he wasn’t without agricultural experience. He held a horticulture degree from the University of Arizona and had helped his uncle identify plantings for the Arboretum. Even so, Joe Jr. was a very hands-off manager. He left all the gardening and much of the administrative work to Benson, who received a monthly stipend from the Board of Directors to propagate plants, oversee gardening, and answer Thompson’s Arboretum correspondence.
Meanwhile, Joe Jr. made the most of this personal assistant. “Soon, Joe Jr. began asking Harry to chauffeur him whenever he went somewhere. Harry remained Joe Jr.’s personal chauffeur and repairment the entire time Joe was managing the arboretum.”
Joe Jr. brought some improvements to the Arboretum’s physical plant. For instance, none of the buildings on the grounds had air conditioning. Joe bought some window units in Phoenix for his house and had Harry install them. In the meantime, Benson, who had the office in the administration building (the Smith building) primarily to himself, acquired a cooling unit from a different source.
“Joe Jr. was frequently away from the arboretum, sometimes engaging in activities he thought might benefit the arboretum, such as joining the Rotary Club in Superior. Unlike Gibson, Joe Jr. did not get his hands dirty with gardening. That meant there was one less pair of hands to help Benson and Nate Patterson take care of the plants, buildings, and grounds.”
Joe Jr. wasn’t wholly self-interested. At the April 1, 1957 board meeting, for instance, he lobbied to get Nat Patterson — a long-time arboretum employee over 72 years old — a pension to supplement his social security income of $68 per month. Joe argued that Nat could not live on Social Security payments alone, mainly because he supported many relatives. The board said, “No.”
At the time, Joe earned a monthly income of $375 and Benson $350. M. Natanson worked three days a week and made $100 a month under Social Security. Harry McBride, who lived in the Administration Building (the Smith Building), earned $5 a day; Antonio Otaro earned $4.50 a day (he lived in the Rock House or Clevenger Building); and Morgan Patterson had a salary of $4.50 a day (he lived at Indian Camp).
Joe asked for a new truck at the same 1957 board meeting. The old one, he maintained, had run down and would cost too much to keep running. The board gave him a month to provide more detail. Joe ultimately received permission to buy a four-wheel drive Dodge Pickup for $2,413, including federal tax, a savings of about $700 under retail price.
Benson, who had to fill out the paperwork and obtain insurance for the vehicle, was “surprised and horrified” at the expense, according to Lee. “Joe Jr. took possession of the Dodge pickup and used it as his personal vehicle, with Harry McBride as chauffeur. Previously, Harry had been driving Joe Jr. around in Joe’s own private automobile. However, Joe Jr. wanted to present the ‘rancher’ image by riding a large, powerful pickup. Benson said that to fuel the Dodge Harry never used gas from the tank that was kept on the arboretum grounds for arboretum equipment, so Joe Jr. probably paid for gas out of personal funds, filling up at gas stations in town.”
Interestingly, the pickup can still be found on the Arboretum grounds. “When Joe, Jr., retired, the Dodge pickup became a workhouse for the arboretum.” It is now part of the Drover’s Wool Shed installation in the Australian Deserts Exhibit.
“Joe, Jr.’s son Ned returned from the war zone and retired from the military. While Ned was between jobs, Joe Jr. let Ned and his wife live in the Gibson house for a few months. During their time in the house, an accidental fire burned part of the kitchen. The arboretum’s insurance policy covered repairs to the dwelling.”
Several years after Joe Jr. took over the Arboretum, his wife Carolyn became seriously ill. Early in 1959, he took her to Chicago for treatment, leaving Benson to take care of his paperwork. On March 15, 1959, he wrote a letter to a Publicover in New York City on March 15, 1959:
“I have not been able to leave here yet as Mrs. Thompson is still in the Hospital and I do not know yet when the doctor will release her. The graft is healing very slowly in her throat. It was expected to be slow due to the radiation treatments she had in the fall. However if this operation is successful, she will have use of her vocal cords and be able to eat normally.”
Two weeks later, on March 31, he wrote to William Smith that Carolyn was still in the hospital and might remain there for another two weeks. “Dr. Slaughter told me last Friday that there was no danger and that it would be alright for me to leave. However, Carolyn did not want me to leave until this week-end. She is still being fed by tube but is able to talk now. On top of other complications she had pneumonia last week. Her brothers will come up for her when she is released from the hospital and take her down to their homes until she is able to come visit.”
On August 3, 1960, Carolyn had a setback in her operation. Joe took her from La Jolla back to Chicago. “I do not know how long I will be there,” he wrote. He was a widower by 1861 and moved temporarily off the Arboretum, writing to Publicover on March 27, 1961, that he was “a commuter at present.” He was staying at the new Superstition Ho at Apache Junction, only a 30-minute drive away.
Joe Jr. managed to hang on at the Arboretum for a few more years after that. Lee suspects that by the time of the April 6, 1964, board meeting, Joe Jr. may have used up his inheritance. Why? When William Smith presented a proposed agreement at the meeting between the Arboretum and the University of Arizona, it gave the university access to the grounds of the Arboretum, except J.E., Jr.’s personal residence.
“The fact that the arboretum was offering free housing to Joe Jr. for an indefinite period of time raises the possibility that Joe Jr. had spent his inheritance and needed financial assistance. Joe Jr. moved off the arboretum on April 4, 1967, a couple of years after he was no longer an employee.”
On May 15, 1965, arboretum employees became employees of the University of Arizona, ending Joe’s reign as director. Yet, thanks to the Smith exception, he managed to live on the Arboretum grounds for two years after he was no longer an employee.
Joe Jr. assisted his uncle in the early planting of the Arboretum. At his uncle’s behest, he spent three months studying at the French nurseries of George (sic) Poirault, director of the Villa Thuret in Antibes, France. “He and his daughter set up the plant Research System and made many suggestions as to the layout and grouping of plants from different countries.”
J.E., Jr., and Poirault went on an expedition of Northern Africa and Asia Minor in search of rare and common plants, according to a July 14, 1927, account in the Arizona Gazette. Crider had planned to take this trip himself — he had spent months in preparation — but could not go due to his wife’s ill health. Crider wrote to Poirault, “I am glad that Joe Thompson (junior) was able to make the trip back with you…I hope that I may be able to join Joe sometime later.”
The newspaper reported on the trip’s lofty mission. Apparently, it was a journey of Biblical proportions.
“And while they are there, they will search the desert stretches of Christianity’s Cradle for information which may indicate that there was a mixing of fruits in the Biblical account of the creation. These two will study to see whether there is any proof to substantiate the horticulturists’ theory that Moses, as he wrote Genesis, succumbed to the propaganda of the Eden Conversative Apple Growers’ association and dedicated the apple to the centuries of unearned publicity when, in reality, it was a delicious succulent, juicy fresh date that Eve served to Adam on that beautiful spring morning.”
Poirault, according to the article, believed that dates, figs, apricots, peaches, and grapes of America had not been grown to their best advantage. According to the report, J.E., Jr. had held this belief for several years. When he took the info to his uncle William Boyce Thompson in New York, the Magnate decided to obtain the finest Persian specimens and grow them in the semi-desert valleys of America, including the Arboretum and his brother’s Phoenix ranch.
“Since his graduation from the University of Arizona,” the paper reported, J.E., Jr. “has been conducting experiments on his father’s ranch near Phoenix. On the 100 acres he has set out 160 varieties of grapes, the largest private collection in America, as is his collection of 44 species of pedigreed dates. He experiments with Dr. F.J. Crider at the Arboretum.”
In the winter of 1926, the paper reported, J.E. planted a portion of his father’s Rancho Jauquina ranch to lettuce, “getting a higher yield than any other grower in the valley. This was planted between the date palms and surrounding two acres of American beauty roses near his adobe house.”
After his wife died, Joe moved temporarily off the Arboretum. He wrote to Publicover on March 27, 1961, that he was “a commuter at present.” He was staying at the new Superstition Ho at Apache Junction, only a 30-minute drive away.