Tyler Thompson; Missionary Imprisoned by Japan in WWII

Tyler Thompson, a Methodist missionary, minister and professor of philosophy who was imprisoned in Singapore by the Japanese during World War II, has died. He was 78.

Thompson, who had undergone quintuple heart bypass surgery two weeks ago, died Friday at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, said his wife of 20 months, Patricia Smith Thompson.

Born in Corona, Thompson earned a degree in theoretical physics at Caltech in 1936 before deciding on a career in the ministry. After earning a divinity degree at Boston College, he went to Singapore as a missionary teacher with his first wife, the former Phyllis Oechsli, who was the daughter of missionaries and was born in Singapore.

At the outset of the war, Thompson’s wife and the couple’s first child, Francia, fled to India, but Thompson stayed with their mission school. He was imprisoned when Singapore fell to the Japanese on Feb. 15, 1942, and remained a prisoner until the end of the war.

Throughout his career, Thompson believed that religious leaders should be involved in political affairs, particularly where civil rights were concerned. After the war, he advocated United Nations trusteeship for Indonesia and other Far Eastern areas. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was arrested while working for blacks’ rights in Mississippi.

After serving briefly as a minister at Methodist churches in Massachusetts, Thompson spent most of his career teaching philosophy of religion at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary near Chicago.

He served as president of the Illinois American Civil Liberties Union chapter from 1959 to 1964, and in 1960 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Illinois.

After retiring to Pasadena, Thompson taught at Fuller Theological Seminary, tutored in Pasadena schools and worked with the social services program at Pasadena’s First United Methodist Church.

In addition to his second wife, he is survived by five children, Francia, Wendy, Heidi, Becky and Peter, and two grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at the First United Methodist Church, 500 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena.