New M. E. for LIFE

This week LIFE (circ. 5,380,629) got a new managing editor, Edward K. (for Kramer) Thompson, 41. Thompson, who has been assistant managing editor since 1945, succeeded Joseph J. Thorndike Jr., 36, who resigned after 15 years at TIME Inc. and three as LIFE'S M.E.

Ed Thompson has been a newspaperman since he was 19 years old. He grew up in St. Thomas, N. Dak. (pop. 503), made Phi Beta Kappa at the University of North Dakota, and became editor of the weekly Foster County (N. Dak.) Independent. Later, moving to the Milwaukee Journal, he filled all the jobs from reporter through picture editor to assistant news editor.

Thompson went to LIFE in October 1937. In 1942 he joined the Army as an armored force captain, was transferred to the Air Force to found and edit Impact, a LiFE-like confidential air intelligence magazine. He wound up in 1944 as a lieutenant colonel in charge of German air force intelligence at SHAEF, was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Order of the British Empire.

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