Meryle S. Thompson
March 27, 1925-April 1, 2024
Menlo Park, California
Submitted by Charles S. Thompson

Meryle Swift Thompson, of Menlo Park (formerly Atherton), died of natural causes on April 1, 2024, with her son, Charles, at her side. She was 99 years old. The only child born to Eleanor Propfe and Irving Swift in San Francisco on March 27, 1925, she spent her childhood growing up on a prune orchard in Princeton, California. Meryle attended Colusa High School for three years, then graduated from Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy in La Canada, near Pasadena.

It was during WWII that she attended Stanford University where she noted fewer male students but made many lifelong friends, joined the Pi Beta Phi sorority, and graduated in 1946 with a degree in Economics. In 1955 she married John J. Thompson, also a Stanford graduate, and they settled in Atherton. John managed a wholesale building materials company in San Francisco and Meryle presided over the family rice growing business in Colusa County.

Meryle was a lifelong enthusiast of Stanford sports, with basketball and football being her favorites. Watching exciting tennis matches on television was also a love of hers as well as playing the sport. She was an avid reader of fiction as well as presidential biographies and political commentaries. Meryle enjoyed watching so many programs on public television that her family thought she only needed one television station!

She was a lifelong subscriber to the San Francisco Chronicle which she read daily. Meryle enjoyed attending events at the Hoover Institution, supported the Lucile Packard Children’s Foundation, Allied Arts Guild, Peninsula Family Service Agency, her alma mater Stanford, and was a longtime member of the Junior League.

She always liked a friendly game of dominoes and was an accomplished cook, preparing foods from her Danish heritage. She enjoyed traveling with her family and had a memorable European trip after college, where she witnessed the rebuilding efforts post WWII.

Meryle was known for her kindness and thoughtfulness, intelligence, keen perception, generosity, and pragmatism. She always looked put-together, had an even-keeled personality, and kept in shape throughout her life. Growing up during the Great Depression, she understood the value of a dollar, a trait that would remain with her throughout her life.

She is preceded in death by her husband, John J. Thompson in 1997, her father, Irving Swift when she was only 2 years old, her mother, Eleanor in 1998 at the age of 98, and her step-father, Charlesworth Welch in 1962. She leaves behind her only child, Charles Thompson, and his partner, Victoria DeWitt. She will be deeply missed.

Donations in her memory may be made to a charity of one’s choice.