Yes, I was a year ahead of this class but I had the chance to spend a season in baseball with "Yogi".  My junior year when Bobby was a sophmore, I was forced to play JV baseball by Gene Kelly (ugh) long story.  I was considering not playing and concentrating on weight training for football but Bobby made the differnce!!!!  I pitched way too many games, and innings that year but "Yogi" made it fun.  He would continually say " stop throwing so hard" and I would chuckle and say I do not have a curve slider or anything else and 2 no hitters and a damaged arm was woth it .  Great teamate!  Great kid.

Kensley Robert Thompson, affectionately “Bobby” or “Yogi”.   We met, as did Eddie Halbig and I, in kindergarten at St. Mary’s School.  We became fast friends, most likely because we were among the smallest in the class, and inevitably stood near each other “in line” - as the Sisters of Mater Dolorosa were obsessed with having things in order -  and placed us by size. Bobby was one funny guy - we had similarly twisted senses of humor even at age 5.  His mom, Mary Crossan Thompson, was our sweetest class mother, accompanying us on many class trips. Eddie’s description of Bobby as a fierce competitor is gospel truth.  Even as a diminutive Little League baseball player, his inner fire to win burned brightly.  My father, coach of our Legion LL team, saw this fire early.  He made Bobby into our catcher after noticing his ability to ”throw a rope” from home to second base.  Then we called him “Yogi”. By the time we reached high school, Bobby was on a growth spurt, and left the ranks of us little guys, but our friendship was by then cast in stone.  He excelled not only as a baseball and basketball player, but as a stalwart on the soccer field. After MK, he attended the new County College of Morris (CCM).  Along with Mike Eberhardt, our soccer team captain, I began my college career at Seton Hall.  Since we three were college commuters, we continued playing soccer together on a club team in Union, NJ.  Then, winning a soccer scholarship, Bobby went off to Quinnipiac College in Connecticut after two years at CCM.  I had transferred to the University of Hartford in the previous year - my family had moved to CT also.  So, Bobby and I still saw each other occasionally, and he would pop in to my parents’ house to do his laundry and chat up my mother.  She loved him like a 5th son. We lost him exactly one week after his 21st birthday.  I learned only a couple of years ago that on the night before he died, Bobby had asked his life’s love, Allison, to marry him.     I’ve wondered aloud to my other best pals, Eddie and Rick, what would he be like today, had his life not been cut so short.  And I am sure that wherever he is, he still has that passion to win.  

If you look in a dictionary under the term "free spirit", you will see Bobby's picture. Eddie, Joey, Bobby, and I spent many happy hours both on the soccer field and off. The stories that we still tell last for hours. Whenever I think of him, I'm reminded of the saying, "A good friend will come and bail you out of jail, but a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, Damn, that was fun!" Bobby was a true friend and we all miss him. Rick

Bobby was the ultimate competitor in high school Losing was not an option, whether it was on the soccer pitch, or behind the plate on the baseball diamond. In fact, Bobby  would do ANYTHING to avoid losing even a "friendly" game of ping pong in his basement, or Monopoly on his back porch. This includes cheating, which I tolerated because his frustration amused me. I will never forget the day, when after we lost a baseball game, Bobby flipped off coach Kelly, who caught Bobby in the act.  Kelly hauled Bobby into the janitor's closet outside the gym, and when Bobby emerged, he looked like Casper the ghost.  Kelly never touched him, but whatever he said scared Bobby noticeably. After high school, Bobby spent two years at Morris County Community College trying to figure out his life path.   Bobby was accepted to Quinnipiac College in Hamden,CT, majoring in History, for his Junior year. That first year, away from home, led Bobby to realize that he would most likely become a History teacher, and maybe a soccer coach, on the high school level. On August 29, 1971,with Senior year at Quinipiac beckoning, Bobby and a few MK friends, most notably, Joey Douglas,decided to raft  on the wild side of the Rockaway River on the wave of Hurricane Doria. The rafters were flung overboard and tossed into the raging Rockaway River. Bobby's head met an immovable object, namely, a huge rock. I lost one of my best friends that day in 1971.  It was perhaps, the darkest day of my life. I thank God every day that Joey pulled himself out of the river on that saddest of all days.  I'm blessed to have Joey and Ricky still alive and well with me.  We enjoy everyday to the best of our abilities! Ed

yogi.