'Friends' Recliff Scholarship grows to four

Contributed

David Jon Thomson, born in Medicine Hat in 1939, passed away on February 13, 2020. Thomson, a well-known businessman and lifelong proponent of education, had strong roots in the Medicine Hat and Redcliff communities having grown up in Redcliff, attended school at Medicine Hat High School and worked alongside his father at the Dominion Glass Factory in Redcliff as a young man during the summer months. He received his BA from University of Alberta, and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario in London. From 1967 to 1972, he worked on the campaigns of Pierre Trudeau and then served as an aide and director of the Prairie Desk in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

To honour his legacy, David’s family has established the David Jon Thomson Scholarship that will be awarded alongside the other three Redcliff Scholarships for Advanced Education. Scholarships are awarded each June to high school graduates who live in Redcliff. The David Jon Thomson Scholarship will match the other three, providing a young person $5,000 towards post secondary education studies.

“My father was an ardent supporter of higher education,” says daughter Kristin Thomson. “The establishment of this $5,000 scholarship is the perfect way for our family to honour his legacy, recognize our family roots which are strongly connected to the Redcliff community, and continue to support his lifelong passion for learning.”

“We are so pleased that the Thomson family has chosen to maintain David’s legacy by providing this opportunity to students who share his love of learning,” says Redcliff Scholarship Fund Chairperson

Arnold Frank. “His legacy through this new scholarship is one that will carry forward for generations by providing young people with educational opportunities that were so important to David.”

Donations to the scholarship fund are receipted, invested and administered by Prairie Rose School Division, under the direction of a scholarship committee.