William Thompson remembered by his family and friends

William Glasgow Thompson, the developer of the Bull Head Settlement in Bridgehampton and Peconic Landing in Greenport, a top-rated, full-service retirement community referred to by many as “Southampton North,” died on Tuesday, July 6. He was 82.

Friends and colleagues this week remembered Mr. Thompson first as a visionary for his innovative real estate ideas and second as the consummate gentleman, almost always dressed in a bow tie and seersucker jacket.

“He was truly a remarkable man. He saw himself as creating an environment,” said Stuart Zuckerman of Bridgehampton, who lives in the first home built in Bull Head Settlement. “He didn’t even see himself as a builder.”

Born September 27, 1927, to Edna and William Thompson, he grew up in Larchmont, New York, and attended Salisbury School in Connecticut, The Citadel, South Carolina, and Amherst College before graduating from Columbia college in 1952. After military service in Hawaii, where he moonlighted as a sportswriter on a local paper, Mr. Thompson entered the communications field.

After starting out selling advertising for NBC in the 1950s, he got into the development business—and realized his knack for historical restorations—after he restored and moved into the Old Fields farmhouse east of Lockwood Avenue in Bridgehampton in 1966.

Mr. Thompson’s first cousin, John M. Thompson of Maine, explained that his cousin grew tired of the rat race in Manhattan and that the natural beauty of the Hamptons drew him east. Mr. Thompson’s brother, Hugh, who predeceased him, had a home in Sag Harbor.

John Thompson noted that his cousin is descended from an important southern family; his grandfather, Hugh Smith Thompson, was the governor of South Carolina in the late 1880s.

When asked why so many New Yorkers, like Mr. Zuckerman and Mr. Thompson’s other friends, thought of Mr. Thompson as a true gentleman, his cousin said it was probably because of his Southern heritage.

“He was always dressed to the nines and sharp as a tack,” said Bob Syron, the executive director of Peconic Landing. “He was a classy guy with a good sense of humor.”

That Southern heritage also seemed to influence some of Mr. Thompson’s projects.

Bull Head Settlement, located off Ocean Road, stands out from other subdivisions in Southampton Town because of the architecture. The first Bull Head homes, built on a former potato field, went on the market in 1979, Mr. Zuckerman said, and the plan was to build “a colonial Williamsburg village.”

“All of the architectural designs were reproductions of Williamsburg era-homes,” he said.

Later in life, one of Mr. Thompson’s biggest achievements was the construction of Peconic Landing.

Experiences that Mr. Thompson’s mother, Edna Pritchard Thompson, had in the 1970s were part of what spurred him to accomplish the challenging task of creating a retirement community on the East End, the developer’s longtime friend, Ray Wesnofske, said this week.

“She became ill and he had to put her in the nursing home,” Mr. Wesnofske said. “He had to take her from her house and put her right in.”
Mr. Wesnofske said that Mr. Thompson was disheartened with his mother’s situation and was convinced that there had to be something better than nursing homes for the elderly. He started researching “life-care” facilities in Pennsylvania. Rules and regulations in New York State made such living arrangements scarce here, Mr. Wesnofske said.

Mr. Wesnofske, who helped his friend scout out parcels for such a facility, said that Mr. Thompson originally wanted to buy land in Water Mill for the project. Mr. Thompson asked Mr. Wesnofske to help, he said, because he had been living on the South Fork for more than 50 years and is a farmer.

But community opposition against the project in Water Mill killed the proposal on the spot, Mr. Wesnofske said.

“We got turned down in Water Mill, and I figured we’d have to give up,” Mr. Wesnofske said. “But he said we’ll find something. He didn’t give up. He was a very persistent guy.”

The duo abandoned the South Fork, but found 147 acres in Greenport perfectly suited for the facility Mr. Thompson envisioned. It opened to great fanfare in 2002. Now, the nursing home component of the facility is rated to be in the top 1 percent nationally, according to Mr. Syron.

“When he said there has to be a better way to do it, he accomplished that,” Mr. Wesnofske said. “You certainly have to give him credit for it.”

Predeceased by his brother, Hugh, Mr. Thompson is survived by a stepson, Scott Campbell Seckel of Phoenix, Arizona, and first cousin John M. Thompson of Phippsburg, Maine.

A memorial service for Mr. Thompson will be held at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church on Main Street in Bridgehampton on July 17. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Salisbury School in Salisbury, Connecticut, would be appreciated by the family.