John "Ray" Thompson

– John "Ray" Thompson, 71, of Florence, passed away Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015, while hunting in Malta.

He was born Jan. 5, 1944, in Townsend to Mary and John Thompson. He was raised in Townsend and graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in forestry.

Upon graduation he went to serve in Kaiserslautern, Germany, as a first lieutenant in the Army for two years.

Not only did he return to Montana for his first place of employment with the Forest Service, but continued to work in several other locations. In his forestry career he worked in Lincoln, Stevensville, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Grants, New Mexico, Prescott, Arizona, Anchorage, Alaska, and lastly Missoula.

Ray meet his wife "KC" in Anchorage through the Alaska Treasure Seekers. They married July 19, 1997, and moved to his new work location in Missoula.

Ray and his wife were both avid detectorists, bottle diggers and gold miners. Ray had a passion for each of these hobbies. He belonged to the Montana Bottle Collectors Association for many years. An expert in his field of bottle collecting, he was often called upon to do consulting and help when needed. Ray was a wealth of information on many topics. Recently he has been working in the field of geology just absorbing information in the search of various mineral deposits.

Ray was very active in his church activities and mentored in the After School Program for junior high students in Florence.

Ray was preceded in death by his parents and son Aric.

He cared deeply for all of his family. He is survived by his wife "KC" of Florence; son Ryan Thompson of Palmer, Alaska; stepdaughters, Susan Cersosimo of San Diego, California, and Charlene Duncan of Charlotte, North Carolina; two brothers, Richard Thompson of Townsend and Tom Thompson of Whitefish; three sisters, Beth Taylor of Spokane, Mary Hogue of Billings and Marcia Jarrell of Marion, North Carolina; grandchildren, Lily, Elias, Psalm of Charlotte and Kyle of Palmer, Alaska; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to Dayspring Church, memo: Backpacks 4 Love, in Ray's memory (for abused children).

A service to celebrate Ray's life will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, at Garden City Funeral Home in Missoula with a reception to follow. Viewing will precede the services at the funeral home from 12:30 to 2 p.m.


Read John Thompson's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.