John Michael Thompson, aka Hodad, was born on January 17, 1968, in Missoula, Montana to his parents, Bruce Thompson and Sandra Baril, he passed on to the next great adventure on June 12, 2023.

John might have picked up his love of travel in his early childhood, as he moved from Montana to Washington, to Oregon, to Arkansas. Then a month in Oklahoma, where his sister was born. Then on to Texas, and finally to Sumner, Washington, when he was six.

In the time between arriving in Sumner and his graduation from Sumner High School in 1986, John had a childhood that might be familiar to many GenX’ers. With his sister Josette, his friends, and later, his step siblings, Karin, Debbie, and Rob, he had the freedom to have adventures and satisfy his exceptional curiosity. John learned to ski at age six, then later took up snowboarding, which he enjoyed for the rest of his life. He was on a swim team for seven years, raced his BMX bicycle, and learned to ride horses during  his summers in Montana. He milked goats at his uncle’s farm in Canada. He was interested in every new experience and eager to try every new technology. He picked berries, delivered newspapers, and mowed lawns until he had enough saved to buy an Atari and then a motorcycle.

It was during his twenties that John became known as Hodad and grew into the talented and visionary artist he was. During his early twenties Hodad worked night shift at the grain elevators at the Port of Tacoma, airbrushed graphics on cars, biked around the Netherlands, moved t o San Diego, worked at Balloonatics as the San Diego Chicken Clown. 

It was in Washington that Hodad met Annmarie Newton; they were married June 19, 1993 in Manzanita, Oregon. In 1998, on January 3rd they became the parents of twins, Clark Alexander Thompson and Cyan Magenta Thompson.

From the time he first held a crayon, John was expressing his creative talent. By the time he was in high school, he was working as a sign painter for a garden nursery and painted a wall mural at a local car dealership.

After moving back to Portland, Hodad went to school at PCC and Portland State University while working in the art department at Tower Records. He then went on to the sign and design company,  PVS/Opus until 1999 when he went to work for DeMarini. It was here at DiMarini that he found his perfect work and appreciation for his creative energy. Hodad became their creative director and designed everything from the logo, to bat graphics, t-shirts to work areas.

Hodad loved to travel and experience everything he could, about as much of the world as possible. He surfed on the Oregon Coast, parasailed off a cliff in Taiwan, went whitewater rafting on the Gallatin River in Montana, skinny dipped in the Atlantic Ocean at night, haggled at a Hong Kong night market, met a herd of cows coming the other way while mountain biking in Taiwan, ate durian fruit in Singapore, rode a tuk tuk in Jakarta, bet at the dog races in Macao, ate his way through Chile, cycled from Seattle to Portland in a day, drank absinthe on Bourbon Street, ate raw horse in Japan, stayed at all the hostels in Holland, vacationed solo in Manhattan, and ate the ENTIRE chicken in Tokyo!

Hodad died too soon, but he lived his life well, with fearlessness and joy. He loved adventure, his work, his friends, and his family.

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