parties in which students dressed as survivors.

A couple of nights a week, he went to a county jail, where he taught his favorite students. The inmates were still young enough that they could turn their lives around, and Mr. Thompson wanted to make sure they had a decent chance to do that.

"He kept in touch with a lot of his students for years after," Robert Thompson said. "He wanted to make sure they were living the way he had taught them they could."

He retired a few years ago but hated it. He immediately went back to teaching at Hillsborough Community College, where he taught reading and study skills.

Mr. Thompson had battled leukemia for the past couple of years. Then he developed pneumonia. He was dying and he knewit, but he kept teaching.

"He needed a walker," his son said. "My mother would drive him to HCC so he could save his energy for teaching."

He kept teaching until the end of January, just a couple of weeks before he died.

Besides his wife and his son, Mr. Thompson is survived by daughters Kristen Thompson-Norris and Kathy King and three grandchildren.