Thompson, disability advocate, dies

BY BARBARA PALMER

Kimberly Thompson, a well-known administrator who died on April 3, leaves a legacy on campus as cofounder of the Disability Staff Forum. But Thompson, who was born partially deaf, will be remembered for much more, her colleagues say: She taught her co-workers the importance of communicating with each other.

The outpouring of emotion from people across the community following the news of Thompson's death from a rare form of uterine cancer was a testament to the kind of person she was, said Sally Dickson, Thompson's former supervisor and now associate vice provost for faculty development. "I thought the world of Kimberly. She had a way of really showing how much she cared for others."

Thompson, who was 46, worked at Stanford for 16 years. She most recently was budget officer for the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Religious Studies and had served as program administrator for the Ethics in Society Program. From 1995 to 1999, she was office manager for the Office of Campus Relations. She previously had worked in Environmental Health and Safety and in the School of Education.

Thompson was born Jan. 2, 1958, at Stanford Hospital and grew up in Redwood City. She studied art and English after high school and came to work at Stanford in 1987 after working for an industrial food service company, said her husband, Tracy Thompson.

With Cathy Haas, a lecturer at the Language Center, Thompson founded the Disability Staff Forum in 1989. The mission of the forum is to provide support for people with disabilities and to increase awareness of disability issues.

"We were a good team for many years and helped improve and facilitate communications between Stanford community members with and without disabilities," Haas said. Thompson was a "remarkable, wonderful, caring, very kind person."

Thompson was a "huge advocate [for disability issues] before there was somebody like myself coordinating services," said Rosa Gonzalez, director of the Office for Multicultural Development in the Office of Campus Relations and the campus compliance officer for the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Even after the compliance-officer position was established, people continued to turn to Thompson for her support and advice on disability issues, Gonzalez said.

Thompson helped bring the disabled community to the attention of the Office for Multicultural Development and to the university, said Dickson, the former director of the office. "The way she did it was in such a thoughtful way. ... She did it from the heart."

Thompson also helped organize the first Multicultural Springfest to celebrate staff diversity in 1995, an event that has grown from about 300 people to 3,000. "It really gave her joy to see people together," Dickson said. "She had a way of really showing how much she cared for others, oftentimes not thinking of herself."

Gonzalez said that when she thinks of Thompson, she pictures her in a Springfest T-shirt. "I think of how many different lives and people that she touched. For her, it was always about sharing. I will miss her beautiful and generous spirit."

Thompson, who was a Stanford Staffers officer since 1989, was awarded a 1999 Stanford Staffer of the Year Award for Leadership, Dedication and Service.

"Kimberly was just an angel with a mission to help around causes like the Staffers, the Disability Forum, multicultural events and a lot of other events," said Edgar Chicas, a former Stanford Staffers president, who is working as a financial analyst for the Radiology Department. "We must now keep her legacy alive."

Thompson is survived by her husband, Tracy Thompson, and daughter Alyssa Thompson and stepson Andrew Thompson, all of Palo Alto; a son, Patrick Griffin, of Redwood City; a stepdaughter, Christine Rumreich, of Berkeley; her parents, Robert and Barbara Shrake, of Sun City West, Ariz.; her grandmother, Meg Traina; and a brother, Robert Shrake.

In lieu of flowers, Thompson and her family have requested that donations be sent to the Rare Cancer Resource Foundation, P.O. Box 60051, Palo Alto, CA 94306. Information about the foundation can be found at www.rcrf.org.