THOMPSON, Laurence G. 1920-2005

(Laurence Graham Thompson)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born July 9, 1920, in Ichowfu, Shantung, China; died July 10, 2005, in Ventura, CA. Sinologist, musician, educator, and author. Thompson, a retired professor at the University of Southern California, was best known as a scholar of Chinese religions. He spent the first fourteen years of his life in China before coming to the United States and earning a B.A. at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1942. When America entered World War II, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served as a Japanese interpreter. After the war, he returned to his studies, completing an M.A. at what is now the Claremont Graduate School in 1947, followed by a Ph.D. in 1954. While still attending school, Thompson, an accomplished violinist, taught music and social studies at schools in California and Colorado. He then joined the U.S. Foreign Service, working in such Asian posts as Taipei, Taiwan; Tokyo, Japan; Manila, the Philippines; and Hong Kong. During the late 1950s, he was on the staff of the Asia Foundation before entering academia as a music professor at Taiwan Normal University from 1956 to 1962. Thompson finally returned to California in 1962, where he joined the Pomona College faculty as a visiting professor of Oriental affairs, and then as an assistant professor of Chinese language and literature. In 1965, he was hired by the University of Southern California, where he embarked on a distinguished career teaching Asian languages, literature, and culture. He was the founding director of the university's East Asian Studies Center from 1972 to 1976; he also chaired the department of East Asian languages and cultures twice. During his time at USC, Thompson became renowned as one of the first serious Western scholars of Chinese religion, and he translated, edited, and wrote a number of books on the subject. He was involved in these endeavors for years even after retiring from teaching in 1986. Among his works are Chinese Religion: An Introduction (1969; second edition, 1975), Chinese Religion in Western Language: A Comprehensive and Classified Bibliography of Publications in English, French, and German through 1980 (1985), and Chinese Religions: Publications in Western Languages, 1991–1995 (1998).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, July 31, 2005, p. B15.

ONLINE

University of Southern California Web site, http://www.usc.edu/ (August 2, 2005).