Obituary dorothy thompson biography

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Dorothy Florence (Frohriep) Thompson was born on Mother’s Day, May 9, 1926 in Chicago, IL to Alfred and Emma (Triner) Frohriep. Her ability to partner with others maximized the reach and effectiveness of her charitable efforts, allowing her to make a lasting difference in the lives of many.

Susan’s advocacy for education profoundly impacted students, especially those from low-income backgrounds.

She became a leading proponent of socialist feminist politics both in the academy and as an activist.

Change in universities was central to the upheaval of the 1960s and Thompson moved to take up an academic post in the history department at Birmingham University from the late 1960s.



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Dorothy Thompson (1923-2011) – Groundbreaking historian of Chartism

Obituaries

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Dorothy Thompson was a socialist and feminist historian who transformed the study of the Chartist movement.

The scholarship program helped many pursue academic goals that might have otherwise been out of reach.

Her efforts to support early childhood education also led to greater awareness and funding for programs benefiting young learners. She passed away on April 28 at New Perspective Senior Living, West Fargo.

She attended grade school in Chicago and high school in Coal City, IL graduating in 1943.

Susan earned her Bachelor of Arts in Education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1972. Susan grew up alongside two siblings, Howard Graham Buffett and Peter Buffett. Her research opened up new topics of study, from a focus on female Chartists to the role of ethnicity in Chartist politics.

Political activism was not forgotten.

Dorothy and Carl enjoyed bowling in the Ma and Pa league in the early 1960’s. She taught at the Rockney School and Center School, both in Westfield Township and at the Bang School near Portland.

She was united in marriage on June 28, 1953 to Carl Thompson Jr at Hoff Lutheran Church, rural Sharon. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Sharon.

The foundation’s mission is to promote access to education, healthcare, and social justice, focusing on helping low-income families.

One of its key initiatives, the Buffett Scholarship Program, provides financial support to Nebraska students pursuing higher education, significantly impacting their academic journeys.

At the same time she was active in European Nuclear Disarmament, a campaign that specifically encouraged links with peace activists in Eastern Europe, reflecting the heritage of her decision to quit the Communist Party in 1956. These were often groundbreaking.

She was, for example, one of the first to touch on the exclusion of women from labour movement histories in her essay “Women and Nineteenth Century Radical Politics: A Lost Dimension”, published in 1976.

Early Chartists (1971) began a series of works, including The Chartists (1984), which were for many years the landmark histories of Chartism, reflecting her enormous breadth of knowledge in this area.

1964, she co-founded the Buffett Foundation, later known as the Susan A. Buffett Foundation.

Career

Susan Buffett was a prominent American activist and philanthropist.

obituary dorothy thompson biography

As her interview in New Left Review reflects, she was doubtful about the political implications of the concept of progress in history, for example, and in later years concerned about whether people did want to be politically active.

She came from a relatively privileged background but one with a liberal intellectual outlook.

She had been politically active from age 14 but from 1942 at Girton College, Cambridge University, she engaged both with the politics of the Communist Party and with the kindred intellectual spirit of Edward Thompson.

In the age of Wikipedia an emphasis on visiting the archives cannot be overestimated.

TopicsHistory

Collection inventory

Incoming correspondence A - General correspondence Box 1Abe-Ame 16 May 1933-11 May 1959 (106 items) Box 1Ame-Aut 11 Nov 1932-12 Mar 1958 (65 items) Box 1Acheson, Dean 21 Sep 1945, 06 Apr 1949 (3 items) Box 1Adams, Franklin and Esther 03 Dec 1930-09 Mar 1959 (9 items) Box 1Allen, Jay 24 Oct 1938-27 Aug 1946 (11 items) Box 1Alsop, Joseph and Stewart 18 Feb 1948-15 Jun 1960 (8 items) Box 1American Academy of Arts and Letters, The 20 Nov 1950-08 Nov 1951 (10 items) Box 1American Council for Judaism 20 May 1941-06 Jun 1950 (110 items) Box 1American Council for Judaism 19 Feb 1951-28 Oct 1958 (68 items) Box 1American Express Company, The 28 Feb 1951-11 May 1951 (5 items) Box 1American Friends Service Committee 27 Feb 1939-08 Aug 1958 (11 items) Box 1American Middle East Relief, Inc.

20 Jul 1950-28 Feb 1957 (17 items) Box 1American University of Beirut 10 Jan 1951-26 Mar 1952 (4 items) Box 1American Way, Inc., The 18 Aug 1953-04 Nov 1953 (4 items) Box 2Andrews, Henry 01 Aug 1934-23 Apr 1960 (26 items) Box 2Apartment Locating Bureau 07 Aug 1958-16 Sep 1958 (3 items) Box 2Armstrong, Hamilton Fish 07 Dec 1938-21 Dec 1959 (9 items) Box 2Arthur, Franchon M.

20 Nov 1944-22 Jan 1945 (3 items) Box 2Ascoli, Max, Mr. and Mrs. 20 Jun 1934-13 Nov 1944 (18 items) Box 2Astor, Nancy 01 Dec 1949, 23 Sep 1955 (3 items) Box 2Atlantic Monthly, The 28 Aug 1928-06 Oct 1960 (11 items) Box 2Atwater, Mrs.

W. Clarke 04 Nov 1960 (7 items) Box 2Author's League of America, Inc., The 05 Mar 1958 (3 items) American Friends of the Middle East Box 2[General 1951 (4 folders) Box 2William Eddy 09 Jan 1950-19 Dec 1951 (26 items) Box 2 Cornelius Van H.

Engert 01 Jun 1951-13 Sep 1951 - (15 items) Box 2 [General] 1952 (88 items, 3 folders) Box 2 Garland Evans Hopkins 10 Apr 1952-27 Oct 1952 (12 items) Box 2 [General] 1953 (54 items, 2 folders) Box 3 02 Jun 1953-30 Sep 1953 02 Oct 1953-31 Dec 1953 (50 items) (27 items) Box 3 Garland Evans Hopkins 23 Jan 1953-18 Mar 1953 (5 items) Box 3 [General] 1954 (92 items, 3 folders) Box 3Garland Evans Hopkins 12 Jan 1954-06 Oct 1954 (17 items) Box 3 Kay Sisto 21 Mar 1954-20 Sep 1954 (10 items) Box 3 [General] 1955 (47 items, 3 folders) Box 3 William Z.

Cline 09 Feb 1955-19 Sep 1955 (11 items) Box 3William Archer Wright 29 Mar 1955-07 Oct 1955 (13 items) Box 3 [General] 1956 (74 items, 4 folders) Box 4 William Z. Cline 13 Jan 1956-11 Oct 1956 (9 items) Box 4William Archer Wright 11 Jan 1956-28 Jun 1956 (10 items) Box 4 [General] 1957 (62 items, 3 folders) Box 4 [General] 1958 (12 items) Box 4 William Z.

Cline 06 Feb 1958-09 May 1958 (5 items) Box 4 Garland Evans Hopkins 03 Mar 1958-30 Jun 1958 (7 items) Box 4 [General] 10 Feb 1959, 24 Nov 1959 (3 items) Box 4 [General] 15 Jan 1960-03 Dec 1960 (6 items) Box 4Organizational material (3 folders, 78 items) B - General correspondence Box 4Bab-Bel 16 Jul 1931-28 Apr 1958 (75 items) Box 4Bel-Ble 20 Oct 1930-23 Apr 1956 (58 items) Box 5Bli-Bos 05 Feb 1949-03 Jan 1960 (46 items) Box 5Bou-Bre 01 Oct 1937-09 Dec 1960 (26 items) Box 5Bri-Byr 06 Nov 1940-11 Mar 1955 (71 items) Box 5Barnes, Harry Elmer 01 Oct 1950-23 May 1958 (19 items) Box 5Barr, Springfellow 08 Nov 1944-31 Mar 1958 (4 items) Box 5Barrie, J.

M. 13 May 1930 (1 item) Box 5Baruch, Bernard 13 Nov 1944-16 Jun 1959 (3 items) Box 5Beals and Nicholson 08 Jan 1951-05 Feb 1951 (14 items) Box 5Beaverbrook, William Maxwell Aitken 25 May 1923 (1 item) Box 5Bell, Canon Bernard Iddings 14 Jul 1950-01 Jan 1952 (6 items) Box 5Bell, Ralph and Marjorie 04 Jun 1951-08 Jun 1953 (7 items) Box 5Bell Syndicate 04 Apr 1941- 02 Dec 1948 - John N.

Wheeler (87 items) Box 5Bell Syndicate 01 Feb 1949-24 Dec 1953 - John N. Wheeler (154 items) Box 6Bell Syndicate 28 Jan 1954-12 Apr 1960 - John N. Wheeler (95 items) Box 6Berger, Elmer 03 Jul 1951-28 Oct 1958 (3 items) Box 6Biddle, Francis 06 Apr 1943 (1 item) Box 6Blesch, Josephine 23 Dec 1953-20 Dec 1959 (12 items) Box 6Boeker, Alexander 03 Feb 1948-22 Jul 1953 (8 items) Box 6Borah, William E.

07 Dec 1929 (1 item) Box 6Borchardt, Hermann 08 Apr 1947-17 Sep 1947 (8 items) Box 6Bottome, Phyllis 25 Jul 1928-23 Oct 1958 (21 items) Box 6Bouton, S.

Miles 19 Jan 1949-29 Nov 1959 (22 items) Box 6Boveri, Margaret 28 Feb 1952-20 Jan 1961 (18 items) Box 6Boxer, John 20 Apr 1948-30 Jun 1948 (6 items) Box 6Brandt, Karl and Anita 02 Aug 1938-26 May 1959 (41 items) Box 6Buck, Pearl S.

03 Dec 1942-02 Aug 1952 (5 items) Box 6Buhlig, Richard 02 Jan 1932-10 May 1952 (21 items) Box 6Byrd, Richard E. 21 Aug 1950-04 Jan 1951 (3 items) C - General correspondence Box 6Cad-Cer 05 Aug 1931-18 Feb 1960 (66 items) Box 6Cha-Col 03 Feb 1939-11 Nov 1957 (134 items) Box 7Com-Czu 04 Nov 1931-19 May 1960 (109 items) Box 7Cabell, James Branch 30 Aug 1930-06 Nov 1930 (2 items) Box 7Canfield, Cass 18 Feb 1949-10 Feb 1959 (13 items) Box 7C.

Yet both Dorothy and Edward made distinctive and independent contributions to historical knowledge and socialist politics.

Early years

Thompson, born Dorothy Towers, a third generation south Londoner, recorded much about her early years in her 1993 book, Outsiders: Class, Gender and Nation, and in an interview she gave to Sheila Rowbotham in New Left Review in the same year Rowbotham provided a fine obituary for Thompson in the Guardian).

In 1983 she published the book Over Our Dead Bodies: Women Against the Bomb.

As a Chartist historian myself I had the privilege of being in a sense a second generation Thompson student.