Darrell "Ted" Theodore Thompson

Ted was born on April 20, 1929, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His father was Harold William Marvin Thompson, and his mother was Wilma (West) Thompson. Ted was an only child. As a result of trying to improve the family’s living situation, they moved 21 times — mostly in the Grand Rapids and Chicago areas — before Ted was 18 years old.

EARLY LIFE

Ted was an entrepreneur since a young age. In his teens he started a root beer stand in his neighborhood, selling homemade root beer. He attended Creston High School where he developed new passions such as roller skating and dancing. He skated and danced for hours every evening of the week.

Ted also had an intense interest for the sciences. He created a small lab in the basement of his home and experimented with various scientific elements and properties. At 13 years old, Ted used the Ann Street bridge in Grand Rapids to amplify his ham radio antenna. At 15, Ted made his own oscilloscope. Through the years of the second World War, he started his own radio station playing records. In his late teens, Ted also created a heart and lung machine that kept a rabbit alive for nearly a week.

COLLEGE

At 17 years old and with little money, Ted attended Grand Rapids Junior College. Ted started skipping school and hanging out at the Majestic Theater (now called the Civic Theater) because all the chemistry he was being taught he had already learned in his basement lab. After Ted’s first year, Grand Rapids Junior College did not invite him back to school. With his dad’s urging, he applied at Aquinas College, and he was admitted under academic probation. His first registration meeting was with a nun, and it was the first time he had ever seen a nun. During Ted’s first semester, he earned all A’s, and he joined the Naval Reserve to pay for his college. In the late 1940’s he converted to Catholicism, and he graduated from Aquinas College with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry in 1952.

Ted was called to duty three weeks after graduation and was deployed to the Korean Conflict. He was stationed in New London, Connecticut on a sub chaser with the mission of tracking (and harassing) Soviet submarines. Within a few months, he became the purser and supply officer for the ship.

CAREER

Upon return from the Navy, Ted started at Lear Siegler in their experimental physics department. Ted created Fuel Cells that were used in the NASA Gemini and Apollo missions. Ted also created the stable platforms that served as the guidance system for the NASA Apollo and Eagle lunar lander. During the development of this guidance system, the gyros needed to spin extremely fast, but that spinning made them spark. Sparking added drag and would make the guidance system inaccurate over time, and potentially lead to losing a spacecraft in space. Ted solved the sparking problem by adding a small amount of a chemical to the hydrogen bath they were encased within, which eliminated the sparking altogether.

In 1958, Ted founded X-Rite, originally called Foresight Enterprises. The company’s first product was X-Rite marking tape and was born after a fortuitous accident. Ted’s wife, Duane Thompson, worked at St. Mary’s hospital (now called Trinity Health) in Grand Rapids as a nursing supervisor. She told Ted the lead letters used on x-ray imaging were inconvenient and sometimes spilled. Ted began to experiment with different means of improving the situation. He arrived at the idea of using tungsten steel as a stripe in the middle of a cellophane tape role so that x-ray technicians could write the patient's name onto the tape after it was applied to the film, but before the x-ray. The tungsten was radiopaque to block the x-rays, and in this way, the patient’s name would be directly on the x-ray film itself. With the success of the marking tape, Ted renamed the company to X-Rite. For his contributions to science and medicine, Ted is a member of the Michigan Medical Hall of Fame.

Ted bought other companies as well to bring them into the fold of X-Rite. He purchased the companies Lab Sphere, which is involved in light reflectance and transmittance, and Pantone, the company that sets color standards internationally. With the purchase of Pantone, X-Rite owned the production of color from its original specification to the control of that color through production. Every commercial and industrial product’s color has been controlled to remain constant by Ted Thompson’s inventions, from cereal boxes to the Seattle Supersonics’ uniform fabric, from the color of dental implants to the color of the Delta Airlines logo.

During his lifetime, Ted’s inventions had earned him 39 patents.

Ted was also a longtime member of the Board of Directors of Gentex and St. Mary’s Hospital.

Ted Thompson remained CEO and chairman of X-rite until his beloved wife, Duane, took ill with kidney disease. It was at this time that Ted stepped away from the business to care for her and to take her to her 18 hours of weekly dialysis treatments. Ted and Duane would provide money to the other patients they met during dialysis treatment for funeral expenses. In 2006, Duane Thompson succumbed to kidney disease after 10 years of treatment. Ted continued with the financial gifts to the families of the kidney patients.

In 2012, after 54 years, Ted Thompson sold X-Rite to Danaher.

INVENTIONS

Ted Thompson invented a silver recovery machine to recover silver from spent photographic fluids, densitometers, and sensitometers that were used to measure the relative density of the three primary colors in print material, fabrics, and other materials all so color could be controlled and repeated consistently. He also invented machines that color match paint as used by Home Depot, Lowes, Ace, etc. Next time you color match paint, think: “A man named Ted did that.”

LATER LIFE

Ted Thompson continued his generous lifelong philanthropy. He stuck to his humble beginnings and gave anonymously. He gave purely for the good of individuals he knew that were less fortunate, to the betterment of his community, and to other worldly causes.

In 2011 Ted got remarried to a kind woman, Rita Remus, whom he had known since his teen years. Rita was his new love and companion, and she took loving care of him until his passing.

Darrell “Ted” Thompson is survived by his loving wife, Rita; sons Tom (Rhonda), Tim, and Todd; 11 grandchildren Danelle, Emily, Brenna, Nick, Ben, Samantha, Sara, Shae, Dylan, Jonah, and Ian; and one great-granddaughter, Alaina. Ted was preceded in death by his son Terry (Kelly) in 2020.

He was the smartest person we have ever known.

The family would like to thank hospice for their care.

The family will hold a private funeral service. Memories and messages may be left in the family's online guestbook at www.cookcaresgrandville.com.