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I am writing this blog in an effort to find information about what happened to my brother David Bird Thomson who disappeared in 1979 at the age of 32. A brief chronology follows.
Dave was born 2/9/1947 three years after his older brother Mike. He was the second of 7 children. Growing up he had a comfortable middle class home outside of Hopkins, MN. On June 6 1962 Dave was in a bad auto accident where a badly fractured left leg shortened his leg by 3/8 inch. He graduated from Hopkins high school on 6/3/1964 and attended the University of Minnesota in 1964-5. In 1967 he moved to New Jersey, working as a reporter for the Newark evening news. Returning to Minnesota, he published a magazine called Metanoia (“a change of heart”) using some of the money he received from the auto accident. The magazine centered on art, music, social justice and change. Dave and Mike were regular contributors. After a year or so a principal advertiser pulled out and the magazine stopped publication in 1969.
Dave went to Vietnam in March, 1969 and worked for UPI as a correspondent, part of the time embedded in a military unit. Because of his high school injuries he was classified 1-y for the Vietnam conflict, which meant he was qualified for military service, but only in the event of declared war or national emergency. In 1970, He left Vietnam and went to Switzerland, Germany and London to write.
Later He moved to Denver CO. and worked as a carpenter. 1973 he moved into a gold mining camp outside of Darby MT and wrote Bitterroot Lesson, a journal of his experiences living alone in the mountains. During this time Dave also published an article for True Magazine about wild horses. In 1977 he wrote a novel, “In The Shining Mountains,” published by Knopf in 1979. It was a story about a modern mountain man in search of wilderness in a time when the West was being sold off to the highest bidder.
On August 13 of 1978, I was working on a car in my garage and Dave came up and said that Mike (our eldest brother) was gone. “Gone where?” I asked. Mike had died unexpectedly at 34. The family was devastated and Dave had lost his closest friend. They were quite the pair. They use to babysit my sisters and me and they invented many unique games, one called “dangerous factory” where we had to work around machines that would grab us and pull us in. Another loss came Later in 1978: Dave’s dog Buck escaped his apartment and was killed on the highway.
Dave was last seen with a backpack hitchhiking west from Minnetonka MN July 1979. He left everything including his second novel. “The Solar Kid” which was ¾ finished. He was suffering with grief, depression and mild delusions at the time.
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I am writing this blog in an effort to find information about what happened to my brother David Bird Thomson who disappeared in 1979 at the age of 32. A brief chronology follows.
Dave was born 2/9/1947 three years after his older brother Mike. He was the second of 7 children. Growing up he had a comfortable middle class home outside of Hopkins, MN. On June 6 1962 Dave was in a bad auto accident where a badly fractured left leg shortened his leg by 3/8 inch. He graduated from Hopkins high school on 6/3/1964 and attended the University of Minnesota in 1964-5. In 1967 he moved to New Jersey, working as a reporter for the Newark evening news. Returning to Minnesota, he published a magazine called Metanoia (“a change of heart”) using some of the money he received from the auto accident. The magazine centered on art, music, social justice and change. Dave and Mike were regular contributors. After a year or so a principal advertiser pulled out and the magazine stopped publication in 1969.
Dave went to Vietnam in March, 1969 and worked for UPI as a correspondent, part of the time embedded in a military unit. Because of his high school injuries he was classified 1-y for the Vietnam conflict, which meant he was qualified for military service, but only in the event of declared war or national emergency. In 1970, He left Vietnam and went to Switzerland, Germany and London to write.
Later He moved to Denver CO. and worked as a carpenter. 1973 he moved into a gold mining camp outside of Darby MT and wrote Bitterroot Lesson, a journal of his experiences living alone in the mountains. During this time Dave also published an article for True Magazine about wild horses. In 1977 he wrote a novel, “In The Shining Mountains,” published by Knopf in 1979. It was a story about a modern mountain man in search of wilderness in a time when the West was being sold off to the highest bidder.
On August 13 of 1978, I was working on a car in my garage and Dave came up and said that Mike (our eldest brother) was gone. “Gone where?” I asked. Mike had died unexpectedly at 34. The family was devastated and Dave had lost his closest friend. They were quite the pair. They use to babysit my sisters and me and they invented many unique games, one called “dangerous factory” where we had to work around machines that would grab us and pull us in. Another loss came Later in 1978: Dave’s dog Buck escaped his apartment and was killed on the highway.
Dave was last seen with a backpack hitchhiking west from Minnetonka MN July 1979. He left everything including his second novel. “The Solar Kid” which was ¾ finished. He was suffering with grief, depression and mild delusions at the time.
Next chapter