Don was born on November 23, 1928, in Red Deer, Alberta. He was the second son of Hedley and Beth Thompson, a younger brother for Ken. He grew up and attended school in Rocky Mountain House,

Don’s early years were spent working hard at the usual farm chores, and finding time for fun things such as trapping, hunting and fishing. He would worry his mother because he would go fishing at the river for hours without telling her where he was going. He was so very proud of the hat he bought from money he made shooting squirrels as a teenager. He continued to fish and hunt all through his life and spent many hours fishing with his children and grandchildren.

When Don was 22, his family relocated to Salmon Arm. His parents ran a local café for a while. Don went to work at a creamery making cheese. Later he started work at the saw mill in Canoe, the beginning of a long career working in mills and gas plants.

It was at a dance in Salmon Arm where Don met the love of his life, Marg. They married on September 17, 1955. The next years were busy, welcoming four children – Ross in 1956, Marion in 1958, Greg in 1960, and Jim in 1962.

Don started working in Findlay Forks in 1965 and soon after the family moved to Prince George. Don went to work at the Eagle Lake Saw Mill in Giscome. In addition to working full time to support his family, Don studied and attended school to work his way up to a second class steam engineer.

While Don was working at Giscome, he became a bit of a local hero when he rescued a young boy from drowning when the boy and his friend fell into the lake by the mill while they were fishing on the logs. Don jumped in the lake, crawled over the logs, dove down and pulled the young boy out to safety. Don was such a quiet unassuming man that he didn’t say anything when he came home from work that day. The family read about it in the newspaper a day or two later!

When the mill at Giscome closed in 1974, the family moved to Fort St. John. They lived in company housing for a bit, then over the winter of 1975 – 1976 they built the family home which he and Marg still own.

Don worked at the McMahon Plant in Taylor from 1974 until he retired. He went through the various changes from Pacific Petroleum to Petro Canada to Westcoast Energy to Duke Energy. He unofficially retired at age 65 but continued to work as a contractor until age 70. They literally had to turn the lights off in the power house to get him to quit working - he worked until they built the co-generation plant and de-commissioned the power house.

After he retired, Don spent a lot of time riding bicycle, something he enjoyed very much. He would get up in the morning and ride his bike out to Montney and back just because he was bored. He made three trips with family members riding their bikes from Banff to Jasper (or vice versa), the last time when he was almost 80 years of age. On one of those trips they all went white water rafting.

Throughout his life, Don found it difficult to just sit. He always needed to be busy. His list of hobbies is seemingly endless – beekeeping, leatherwork (purses, belts), woodworking (wooden toy cars and trucks, cedar chests, computer desk), repairing and restoring antique radios, amateur radio operator, stamp and coin collecting, genealogy, gardening, making wine, building miniature boats in bottles, raising budgies and canaries, and building bird houses, were just a few of his hobbies. He was a handyman of sorts, it seemed like he could fix almost anything. Over the years he helped each and every one of his family with home repairs and renos, fixing small appliances, chaufferring grandchildren wherever and whenever, or just going for leisurely Sunday drives.

In between helping his family, Don also did lots of volunteer work. He spent time working with the Salvation Army and numerous hours working out at the North Pine Fall Fair grounds. He did so much work at the Girl Guide Camp at Charlie Lake that it was suggested the camp should be renamed “Hedley Hall”.

Whether he was working at his job or as a volunteer or helping one of his family, Don was a hard worker. Many people were surprised and impressed at how hard and quick he worked, even into his 70’s and 80’s. Don spent many hours helping his brother-in-law on his farm near Rycroft, with everything from tagging new born piglets to building fence to helping run off pesky bears. In 2003 when he was helping check out a fence line Don hit a rut in the road and he and the quad took out a fence post. He had to endure a long painful ride back to the truck on the quad and then drag himself into the truck. He had a cracked pelvis, cracked shoulder, and some broken ribs.

Don had an ongoing thirst for knowledge. He read history books and watched television documentaries and news, always wanting to learn something more. He liked to travel to different countries – he and Marg went to Mexico, Hawaii, Costa Rica, England, Scotland, France and Italy.

Anyone who knew Don knows what a sweet tooth he had. There was no such thing as too many cookies or cupcakes. He kept a bag a Macaroons on the kitchen cupboard, which he told everyone were his special blood pressure pills.

Don could sleep almost anywhere, anytime, probably because of all the years he worked shift work. It was a tradition to see him stretch out on the living room floor for a nap after a big family dinner, and nothing was going to deprive him of his nap, not even a grandchild crawling over top of him. Hopefully now he is resting peacefully. We all love him and miss him lots.

Don is survived by his loving wife of 59 years, Marg, children Ross (Lynada), Marion (Carlyle), Jim (Susan), grandchildren Cheralee (Donnie), Jason (Allana), Erica (Chad), Tara (Bob), Kanda (Allen), Nathan, Kyle, Michael (Krista), great-grandchildren Cassandra (Jason), Kristine, Britney, Charisa, Ayden, Emma, Trinity, Harlee, Gregory, Walker, Avery, and Raymond. He was predeceased by his parents, Hedley and Beth, his brother Ken, and his son Greg. Sadly, his granddaughter Rosemary passed away a few months after Don.