Clyde Thompson, ‘one of a kind," dies

Clyde Thompson of Delhi, who spent more than 50 years in education and public service in every corner of Louisiana and its capital city of Baton Rouge, died Friday. He was 78.

“He was truly one of a kind,” said Franklin Parish Schools Superintendent Lanny Johnson. “He was a like a pied piper who developed a following of people throughout his life. People were just drawn to Clyde.”

Thompson’s brother, state Sen. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi, said Thompson’s wife Cheryl found him dead Friday afternoon at their Poverty Point Reservoir State Park home.

“He was just peacefully sitting there in an old metal lawn chair on the porch with his little dog Jake at his feet,” Francis Thompson said.

Thompson, the oldest of six children, was a football and baseball star at Louisiana Tech University and earned his doctorate at the University of Southern Mississippi.

He coached high school football at Vidalia, Bastrop, Jena and Crowville before returning to Tech, where he was an assistant coach and professor in the physical education department.

From there Thompson went to work for state government, holding key positions in the Louisiana Department of Education, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and the former Louisiana Board of Higher Education.

But Thompson eventually left Baton Rouge and came back home to the Delta, taking over management of what was then a rundown, little-used Madison Parish Port on the Mississippi River in 1989.

“When I saw it, I was sick to my stomach,” Thompson said in a 2003 interview with The News-Star. “It was like a junkyard, and it was bankrupt. There was one job here, and that was the port secretary.”

But Thompson began lobbying and leveraging state and federal grants to revamp the port and started recruiting tenants.

A little more than a decade later, the port was home to seven companies and more than 200 jobs.

Thompson became emotional in that 2003 interview when detailing the revitalized commerce at the port. “Every one of these jobs that weren’t here before means somebody can take care of their family and go home with pride,” he said.

Friends like Johnson and his brother Francis said Thompson was a dichotomy. He had a hard shell that led to a couple of well-publicized fist fights and sometimes masked deeply sensitive feelings he wasn’t afraid to show friends, family and pets.

“That’s what made Clyde so endearing and such a legend,” Johnson said.

“Let’s just say he wouldn’t stand down,” Francis said. “He was very vocal if he disagreed with you, and it didn’t matter if you were the governor.”

“Most of the best stories about Clyde aren’t fit to print,” said Johnson, laughing. “But all of us have been going over them in our minds and with each other and smiling and remembering an amazing man.”

A memorial service has been scheduled at 2 p.m. Monday at the Delhi Methodist Church under direction of Cox Funeral Home. Visitation is at 1 p.m. Monday at the church. A reception is scheduled at the church after the funeral.

Follow Greg Hilburn on Twitter @GregHilburn1.