The Reverend John Estill Thompson, age 96, of Palmyra, Virginia, passed away peacefully in the company of his family on February 24, 2021 at the Hospice House of the Hospice of the Piedmont, in Charlottesville, Virginia. John was born on November 11, 1924 on his family’s farm in the beautiful Thompson Valley, located in Tazewell County, Virginia, the third of four children born to the late William Archie Thompson and Alice Edmonia McGowan Thompson. After graduating at the top of his high school class in Tazewell County in southwest Virginia, John entered King College (now King University), the Presbyterian-affiliated school located in Bristol, Tennessee, with plans to become a Presbyterian minister. World War Two intervened, however, and John signed up to join the United States Navy at his local recruiting office. He was trained at the torpedo school at Newport, Rhode Island, and was standing on the dock at Newport awaiting transfer to a naval destroyer to replace a torpedoman who had been killed in action, when orders arrived that he had been selected for the V-12 Navy College Training Program and he was to become a commissioned officer in the U. S. Navy. The Navy sent him through an accelerated three-year program at Hampden-Sydney College where he earned his BA in 1945. He then entered Princeton Theological Seminary, on track to become a U. S. Navy Chaplain. With the end of World War Two in September 1945, John left active duty and became a member of the U. S. Navy Reserve. He transferred to Union Theological Seminary (now Union Presbyterian Seminary) in Richmond, Virginia, to complete his education, earning his Master of Divinity degree in 1948. He was ordained by Lexington Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of the United States on June 27, 1948 and began a life of service as a Presbyterian minister. He served churches in Franklin, West Virginia, and Crozet, Virginia. He was named the school chaplain and taught Latin and other subjects at the Miller School in Crozet, Virginia. He was called back to active duty in the U. S. Navy during the Korean War and served with Destroyer Squadron Nine in the West Pacific. It was during this time that John became one of the early pioneers of what would become known as the “Holy Helo” program, transferring chaplains from ship to ship by helicopter to hold religious services and provide chaplain care to the ships of the fleet. In the early 1950s, helicopters were a brand new technology and John would be lowered in a harness by rope from the helicopter to the deck of a ship as it rolled on the ocean’s waves. These “Holy Helo Hops” would become a common feature of the life of a Navy Chaplain by the time of the Vietnam War. John returned to reserve status in 1955 and served as pastor of churches in Williamston, North Carolina, and Fernandina Beach, Florida. He returned to active duty in 1961 and during the Cuban missile crisis he was assigned to the 2nd Marine Division and prepared to hit the beaches of Cuba with the Marines, an action that, thankfully, did not become necessary. In 1963, he shipped aboard the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Fleet, seeing service in the West Pacific off the coast of Vietnam. He served as base chaplain at the Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, California, from 1966 to 1968, a most interesting time to be living in San Francisco. In 1968 he boarded the USS Intrepid, an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Fleet, but instead of seeing service in the Atlantic or Mediterranean, the fleet was sent around the world to see duty off the coast of Vietnam in the West Pacific. John finished his naval career as a senior chaplain at the Little Creek Amphibious Base in Norfolk, Virginia, and the Naval Regional Medical Center in Oakland, California. He retired in 1977, having earned promotion to the rank of Captain during his distinguished career in the U. S. Navy. Following his retirement from military service, he set about serving Presbyterian churches that found themselves in financial need or facing internal conflicts. He served pastorates in five churches in four different presbyteries in both Virginia and Florida. His work during his post-Navy career helped these church congregations survive, thrive, and grow, and he considered this work among the most satisfying days of his nearly seven decades of service as an ordained Presbyterian minister. By his side and active in all his ministry service was his wife, Marion Elizabeth Martin Thompson. They met in Baltimore, Maryland, when John was a young naval officer in training and were married in her hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1947. Together throughout more than 67 years of marriage, John and Marion raised three sons and became grandparents to six. John was preceded in death by his wife, Marion Elizabeth Martin Thompson, as well as his brother and sisters: sister Lorraine Thompson, brother William Archie Thompson, Jr., and sister Lou Ellen Thompson. He is survived by his sons, Russell Martin Thompson of Studio City, California; Timothy McGowan Thompson of Valencia, California; and Daniel Archie Thompson of Fork Union, Virginia; and six grandchildren. John will be laid to rest beside his beloved Marion in the cemetery of South Plains Presbyterian Church in Keswick, Virginia. The burial service will be private, in accordance with John’s wishes during this current pandemic. In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to South Plains Presbyterian Church at PO Box 277, Keswick, VA 22947.