I was a senior in high school when my American History class came to DC and I spoke to Gary over the phone for the first time. We were supposed to meet during that trip but our schedules didn’t allow that to happen. Two years later, when I decided to attend Howard University, my brother became one of the many lifelines who assisted me in assimilating into DC living. Some of my most cherished memories of DC, some of which I will share with you today, come from the adventures I had hanging out with my brother and his friends. We are three years apart in age. His birthday was one day before mine. As Cancerians, we shared many of the same characteristics which meant that if you had to deal with both of us at the same time, you were in trouble. He was the funniest person I have ever known and he was the first man, other than my dad, to love me unconditionally. He was my number one cheerleader, and he was never stingy with his encouragement. The relationship that my sister and I developed with Gary was slightly nontraditional for siblings but that meant we didn’t love him just because he was our brother, he was our friend. That so many of you are here today shows that we are not unique in that experience because he had an amazing ability to galvanize and attract people to him.
Gary Thompson attended the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) earning a degree in Communications and Mass Media. He worked at the student run radio station as a news announcer, deejay, assistant manager and general station manager. Under Gary’s management WUDC AM 830 was “College Radio Station of the Year” for two consecutive years. While at WUDC he and his marketing team created a foundation, which is now a national organization, involving college radio stations across the country. He was the only student to work for WHUR 96.3 FM (Howard University radio) will attending another university.
After graduation, Gary was employed by a number of private industry firms, achieving success at every turn. Gary’s enthusiasm for Mass Media would eventually merge with his love for working with young people. He worked at Anacostia High school in SE Washington teaching computer and mass media courses. While at Anacostia, he also coached the girls’ basketball team, allowing him to participate in another one of his passions – Sports. Gary was also an instructor at Howard Community College. He taught at a number of schools in the DC area like J.O. Wilson and The Sylvan Learning Centre. He was most recently an educator at Washington Mathematics, a Public Charter School, which was ranked as one of the top schools in America.
In between his commitment to the classroom, Gary worked as a traffic and weather announcer for both XM Satellite radio and Sirius Satellite Radio as well as WOL AM 1450. While Gary was with Sirius radio he thought it was cute to call me in the middle of the night so I could listen to him doing the weather or traffic for North Carolina or Philadelphia.
Gary was an innovator with an entrepreneurial spirit. He was devoted to learning and had a thirst for knowledge. He could carry on conversations in a number of subject areas with great provost. He could use his mastery of language in academic settings or to participate in one of our favourite pastimes, LIMIN’.
As I mentioned before, some of my most cherished memories are associated with Gary and DC. In fact, it is very difficult for me to separate or distinguish whether or not I just love DC or if I just loved coming to DC to visit and hang out with him. Even after finishing at Howard, I continued to be a regular visitor to this city just really trying to recapture that special feeling being here always gave me.
As a freshman I remember the commotion that Gary would cause on Friday nights at my dormitory. Gary was Dean of his Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity chapter and because I didn’t know my way around yet, it was the duty of one of the brothers on line to check in with me to see if I needed anything. It was always the same, a knock on the door followed by “Greetings great black sister from the North. Dean Al Capone sent us to see if you needed anything”. It made me famous in Meridan Hall for sure.
I ran on the Howard track team. Gary was a frequent supporter at Howard track meets partly because I was on the track team and partly because it was the best way for him to see women in tight shorts. After a performance at Howard Relays, Gary, Nat and I were walking home from a party passing the track outside his Gresham Place apartment. He started bragging to Nate about how well I had done. “It’s in the genes boy”, he said. That began the one of several foot races that Gary would have trying to prove that he was once an outstanding track and field athlete. In dress pants and dress shoes, he and Nat stepped onto the track. They really should have only gone about 10m but they decided to do 400m, a formidable race even for the most seasoned track athlete. But this was about bragging rights and family honour. To this day I can’t remember who won because I was in the middle of the field laughing so hard I didn’t see the finish. After retrieving some oxygen, the argument continued well into the night.
As we both moved further and further from our college years, we discovered a number of common interests that only further solidified our relationship. There were countless Homecomings and DC Carnivals. When I came to Washington last year with my basketball team, he was right there on the bench cheering and coaching as though he was a perfect part of the team.
Today we say good bye to this great Prince. Harriet Beacher Stowe said, “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone”. Gary, in his deeds and in his words, will live with us forever. Life can never die. There is only life after life. This is merely a transition.
Funerals are not for the dead, they are for the living. God is giving us notice that we must work toward living our full potential. The person who has left us needs no notice because it is their time. They have not only served their purpose but fulfilled it. It up to us now to discover what our brother, friend, father, son, husband is trying to tell us. He is only a whisper away. I see him the face of his children, in the legacy of his commitment to family and friends.
While I was in Brazil in 2003, I attended a festival called “Irmandade da Nossa Sennhora da Boa Morte. Its literal translation is “The Sisterhood of the Lady of Good Death”. The festival is a celebration of the strength and power of the African spirit. This was a society of women who were slaves and they believed that once free you would die a “good death” or Boa Morte. A good death was a transition from the material to the spiritual world, no longer a slave. Here today, surrounded by his friends and family, Gary Marc-Anthony Thompson has died a good death.
On behalf of our family, immediate and extended, we thank you for the love and support you have shown us and for being part and present at what has been a great opportunity for all of us to celebrate the life of a great brother.
