Joseph A. Thompson

Joseph A. Thompson served in the United States Air Force and achieved the rank of Radar Operator.

Mr. Thompson was born in Staunton, Virginia and moved to the Bronx with his parents and three siblings at the age of five. He graduated from Morris High School in 1957 and enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1958, serving as a Radar Operator until he was honorably discharged in 1961.

In 1962, Mr. Thompson decided to join the New York City Police Department and was appointed the following year to the Vice Squad. After his promotion to Detective in 1967, Mr. Thompson worked in numerous squads throughout the City.

A steadfast maverick, Mr. Thompson visited Staunton in the mid-1960s and integrated a local segregated diner. Holding on to what he believed was right, he convinced fellow African Americans to break a social taboo by bowling at the for-Whites-only bowling alley.

In 1977, Mr. Thompson became the first full-time African American life insurance agent at New York Northwestern Mutual. In 2008, he was an elected delegate for Barack Obama’s candidacy for  President, signing the primary voting document at the Democratic National Convention in Colorado.

Mr. Thompson began his community service work in 1987, starting as a manager for the Pelham Parkway Little League (PPLL); he became its Vice President in 1989, a position he still holds today. In 1999, he co-founded the Allerton/Pelham Parkway Community Mobile Patrol and was appointed to Community Board 11 in 1997. In 2001, he was elected Second Vice Chair.

An asset to his community, Mr. Thompson diligently served as President of the 49th Precinct Community Council and Executive Director of the White Plains Road Business Improvement District. He was a facilitator for the 49th Precinct Clergy Council, and he was a member of the Einstein College Institutional Review Board and the Einstein-Montefiore Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight  Committee. He has served as a member of the Neighborhood Initiatives Development Corporation’s Board of Directors and chaired the Board of Directors for the Bronx Rebels Youth Football League.

Mr. Thompson has resided in The Bronx’s Community Board 11 for over 47 years. He married his wife, Gladys Osorio, in 1969, and they are the proud parents of two children and two grandchildren.