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Wirt Thompson, passionate nurseryman with connections to well-known Pennsylvania families

RIDING IN a golf cart around the Upper Bank Nurseries outside Media with Wirt Thompson at the controls could be a bit unnerving.

RIDING IN a golf cart around the Upper Bank Nurseries outside Media with Wirt Thompson at the controls could be a bit unnerving.

After all, Wirt was legally blind.

But he knew his way around the grounds that he loved and had traversed for so many years, and with a little help from his friends, he knew where he was going.

Chances were he was taking customers to look at the specimens of bamboo that the nursery specialized in, including an unusual black variety.

"When you rode in the cart with him driving, you were praying," said his daughter-in-law Pamela Thompson.

"Customers would come to look at the bamboo, and he would take them in the golf cart. It didn't take long for them to realize he couldn't see.

"When they returned and got out of the cart, they looked like they had just gotten off a roller coaster at Disney World."

However, he never lost a customer.

Wirt Lord Thompson Jr., a man of many talents and accomplishments - math teacher, inventor, jazz pianist - but whose abiding passion was for the plants and flowers in his nursery, died Thursday. He was 99.

Thompson inherited the 45-acre nursery from his uncle, Fairman Furness, a member of a prominent Philadelphia-area family and a man equally passionate about cultivating plants and flowers. He died in 1971.

Along with the nursery, Thompson inherited a number of 19th-century frame houses that comprised a tight-knit community of old-timers and newer artsy-craftsy types along South Orange Street and South Avenue, near the nursery.

Thompson would hold annual Christmas parties for his tenants in the nursery. He gradually sold the houses, mostly to the former renters.

Thompson was energetic and active until shortly before his death, even though macular degeneration had stolen most of his eyesight. Last May 11, he played the piano at his 99th birthday party.

And he was still riding that golf cart two weeks before he died.

Thompson was the son of Wirt L. Thompson and Helen Kate Furness Thompson. He attended the Meadowbrook School, in Jenkintown, graduated from St. Paul's School in 1930 and Yale University in 1934.

He was a medal-winning pole vaulter and a member of the U.S. Track Team in 1934.

Thompson served in the Navy during World War II, stationed in the South Pacific.

While in the textile business after the war, he developed patents for nylon printer ribbon and moldable fabric.

Thompson taught mathematics at Episcopal Academy and Germantown Academy for a number of years.

"He was very popular with his students," Pamela said. "They had wonderful things to say about him."

As a nurseryman, Thompson registered, with the Holly Society of America, a variegated holly section named after his wife of 67 years, Sara C. Wood Thompson, who preceded him in death. Her family founded Wawa Dairies.

"He was an extraordinary jazz pianist," his daughter-in-law said. "He would play at jam sessions in the house and the place would really be jumping."

Thompson was a popular guest at social functions, where the hosts expected him to give them a few riffs on the piano.

"He played by ear," Pamela said. "He also played the flute."

A couple of years ago, Thompson and his son, Fairman R. Thompson, Pamela's husband, entertained an audience at the Helen Kate Furness Free Library, in Wallingford, founded by members of the Furness family, with family stories.

"Someone in the audience called out, 'I bet you don't sell bamboo anymore,' to which Wirt responded, 'I sold $1,500 worth this morning.'"

"He loved life and his nursery," Pamela said. "He knew each of the flowers and plants by heart. He wanted everything to be so beautiful."

Thompson was a member of The Courts, the Ausable Club, the Yale Club and the American bamboo and holly societies.

He is also survived by two other sons, Wirt L. Thompson III and Radclyffe F. Thompson; two daughters, Sara C. Thompson and Lydia T. Sheafer; and six grandchildren.

Services: Memorial service 10 a.m. July 15 at St. David's Episcopal Church, 763 S. Valley Forge Road, Wayne.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, Pa., 19081.