Retired anesthesiologist Dr. Betty (Blomquist) Thompson, M.D., passed away April 2, 2019 in hospice care due to complications from cancer. She died peacefully at home in Lake Oswego, Ore., surrounded by her family.

Betty was born in Portland, Oregon to Carroll and Helen Blomquist. She attended Lincoln High and Lewis & Clark College. In 1955 she entered the University of Oregon Medical School, where she met future husband, Dr. John W. Thompson, now a retired orthopedic surgeon. Betty was one of only four women in the class. The Thompsons married July 19, 1958. graduated from medical school the following year, and then both interned at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland from June 1959 until June 1960.

In July 1960, John entered the U.S. Navy, stationed as a physician at the USMC Supply Depot in Barstow, Calif. The Thompsons stayed in Barstow until 1961, when Betty began her anesthesiology residency training pro- gram at UCLA Medical School. She was the sole woman in a group of approximately 45 resident physicians. In 1963, Betty finished her residency and John completed his Navy service.

The couple returned to Portland and Betty started what would become a 27-year career on the anesthesiology faculty at OHSU. She was one of six to eight women on the entire OHSU medical school faculty. Betty gave birth to daughter Kathleen in December of 1964 and Scott in March of 1967. Each time, she was back in the operating room within three weeks. During her tenure, Betty trained approximately 200 anesthesia residents before retiring in 1991.

In 1998, Drs. Betty and John made the first of five three-week-long trips to the Kijabe Medical Center, a mission hospital in Kijabe Kenya, where they provided volunteer surgical and anesthesia support. In 2008, Betty and John established the Betty B. Thompson, M.D. Endowment for International Education within the OHSU Foundation. Her basis for starting the endowment came from the Gospel of Matthew, verse 25:40, in which Jesus says, “If you have done it to the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.” Proceeds from the endowment help support medical students and anesthesiology residents on foreign medical service trips to underserved countries. Betty felt that she was following that scripture verse all through her career.

Outside of medicine, Betty was active in church choirs, blessing congregations with her lovely soprano voice. In December 2018, she sang in the Christmas choir at West Linn’s Community of Faith Lutheran Church while sitting with a back brace due to lower back pain. Betty also spent 25 years as a volunteer financial recording secretary with her faithful friend Kathy Polehn, of Lake Oswego, at both Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Lake Oswego and Community of Faith.

Betty was a very caring and giving person and will be sorely missed by family, friends and colleagues. The family wishes to thank the doctors and nurses at the OHSU Hospital and the Providence Hospice Care team for their fine care.

Betty and John were married for over 60 years. In addition to her immediate family, Betty is survived by sister Karen Mischke-Nell, grandsons Luke, 16, and Gray, 14, and son-in-law Ed Elder. Betty's parents and brother, Richard Blomquist, passed away in 1986.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Betty B. Thompson, M.D. Endowment for International Education in the OHSU Foundation.