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randall's ALS diary (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter randall146
- Start date
AAABatteries
Footballguy
Dammit. 
RIP GB.
RIP GB.
Dinsy Ejotuz
Footballguy
RIP Randall. You were a good one.
krista4
Footballguy
You should ramble as much as you want. Your friend seemed to be an incredible man (in addition to being one of my favorite posters here). I always held my breath when this thread was bumped, and I'm so sorry to read this today.
to you and his family and friends.
Olin was an absolutely wonderful person, courageous and kind, an inspiration. I will miss him. I wish I'd told him that directly.
TripItUp
Footballguy
As I mentioned in the thread earlier, my mother passed due to complications via ALS at 62 years old five years ago. For most it happens so so fast...15 months for my mother. It's crazy the medical community doesn't know what causes it and/or how to treat it after knowing of its existence for about a century now.
Hopefully they will figure this one out sooner than later, ALS is significantly worse than most forms of cancer.
RIP Randall
Hopefully they will figure this one out sooner than later, ALS is significantly worse than most forms of cancer.
RIP Randall
Desert_Power
Footballguy
Couldn't break the paywall, but found this nice piece from a couple years ago: https://eastgreenwichnews.com/roger-williams-law-school-honors-olin-thompson/
The Z Machine
Footballguy
You were loved and you'll be deeply missed, Olin.
simey
Footballguy
I checked his wife's facebook page last week, and there wasn't any new news on Olin.I marveled at his courage. He was so selfless, and he always worried more about his family than what was happening to himself. He sure did love his family. It isn't surprising that Olin made a living fighting for criminal defendants who couldn't afford an attorney. He was a champion for people's rights. Even if they were guilty, he made sure they were treated equally and fairly by the justice system. You could tell in his writings that he truly cared about people.
I'm glad he is no longer a prisoner in a body that no longer worked. I hope his family finds peace in that. He's free, and his spirit is watching over his family. In the spirit world, I hope he has the best seats in the house to watch his Blue Devils. RIP Beautiful Man
RIP
The Dreaded Marco
Footballguy
Beef Ravioli
Footballguy
Atomic Punk
Footballguy
Prayers to his family as they find a way through this. Another big loss for our community here.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
GoFundMe for the Thompson Boys
ETA:
Olin Thompson III was diagnosed with ALS 4 years ago. In the early hours of the morning on July 18, Olin gracefully and lovingly left this world for one where he can swim and sing. Our hearts are breaking thinking about going on without him. So many of you have asked how to help the family; you can donate here for a college fund for his three boys.
ETA:
Olin Thompson III was diagnosed with ALS 4 years ago. In the early hours of the morning on July 18, Olin gracefully and lovingly left this world for one where he can swim and sing. Our hearts are breaking thinking about going on without him. So many of you have asked how to help the family; you can donate here for a college fund for his three boys.
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ChiefD
Footballguy
Yep. As we get older here and as we all get to kind of "know each other", things like this comes along and it's just not right.
We have from all appearances a good man both here and in the real world. Kind, giving, a good family - who seemingly worked his whole life to be a good man in the professional world and his home world. And here of course.
And then he gets a diagnosis like this and you just want to scream NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.......
And then he handles it with strength and grace and of course fear. Yet somehow in the face of that he manages to make us all try and be ok with what he has to go through.
God I wish I had that strength.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
Tweet from his wife this morning:
Thank you @kmulvane for writing this to remind us that Olin had a whole (albeit too short) life before ALS took everything from him. 1/2
Olin was a talented and dedicated public servant. To me he was the hot guy from camp who could sing and play guitar. He introduced me to college basketball and the joy of cocktail time. My forever pitch opponent and my dance and parenting partner.
2/2*************^^
They met at camp when they were 14.
ALS is a devastating disease, I'm sorry about your loss. You experienced it as a caregiver - Randall (Olin) chronicled it very well in this thread from a patient POV. I had thought about adding the words of Rahul Desikan to this thread a while back but it seemed too dark while Olin was still alive and fighting. Desikan was a famous neuroscientist who created an automated atlas of the brain widely used in Alzheimer's research, who developed ALS at age 38 shortly after moving to UCSF ... where he started a study, ironically, on ALS. This is his article in the Washington Post a few months before he died in 2019:
I want out of this body’: I can’t move, talk or breathe on my own. But I’m still in there thinking, remembering my old life.
There have been many recent advances in understanding the biology of neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS. I'm optimistic that a real breakthrough will occur given the number of new researchers in the field from neuroscience, computational biology, high resolution imaging, etc. There are many new drugs in the industry pipelines.
It's amazing that a bunch of people on a fantasy football discussion board, who met mainly through words, were able to make a major contribution to Randall's quality of life through the GoFundMe which made his room wheelchair-friendly. Joe's match was great.
Judge Smails
Footballguy
I’m glad Olin is at peace now. Devastating disease. Heartbreaking. Rough month in FBG land. Life is precious and short. Enjoy each other while we can
BroncoFreak_2K3
sucker for Orange
RIP
PIK95
Footballguy
Yeah, we also had that in common. My wife and I started dating at 15 and still together. It happens I guess. That's an impressive tweet from her under the circumstances. Keeping that perspective after the almost four year hell they have gone through. We all found out at Christmas if I remember right. Christmas eve maybe? I really feel bad for the kids today.Tweet from his wife this morning:
Thank you @kmulvane for writing this to remind us that Olin had a whole (albeit too short) life before ALS took everything from him. 1/2
Olin was a talented and dedicated public servant. To me he was the hot guy from camp who could sing and play guitar. He introduced me to college basketball and the joy of cocktail time. My forever pitch opponent and my dance and parenting partner.
*************^^
They met at camp when they were 14.
Godsbrother
Footballguy
SteelCurtain
Footballguy
I’m so sad to learn this.
He lived a life with vigor and when diagnosed with ALS, he exhibited such grace and kindness. Randall will be missed. RIP
He lived a life with vigor and when diagnosed with ALS, he exhibited such grace and kindness. Randall will be missed. RIP
simey
Footballguy
Didn't Olin's wife teach some of your kids in school? His kids (all boys) have had a lot to absorb and understand. Olin was such a great role model, and was really in tune to their feelings, and his wife seems like a great person and mother. The strength, courage, kindness, etc. that has been instilled in these young men will help shape them to be great people themselves. It's awful this happened, but it did, and these boys can carry on all the goodness that made up Olin and that he shared while he was alive.
seahawk 17
Footballguy
ALS is no joke. I am sadden by the news but he is no longer suffering. Thoughts and prayers to his family.
Nigel Tufnel
Footballguy
Gah. RIP. What a brave soul.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
PIK95 said:
Olin Thompson III, champion of justice for the indigent, dies Monday from ALS
PROVIDENCE – Olin W. Thompson III won admiration from legal foes and friends alike during more than two decades doing criminal defense work in Rhode Island.
He used that same tenacity and wherewithal in his fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, raising hopes that medical advances might outpace the disease’s progression. It was not to be. Thompson died early Monday at home in East Greenwich, with his wife, Christa, and three sons. He was 50.
Thompson worked for 14 years in the federal public defender’s office in Rhode Island, where he served as supervising attorney representing indigent clients.
As a federal defender, he worked on criminal justice reform initiatives, including serving on Gov. Gina Raimondo’s Working Group on Criminal Justice Reinvestment. He helped the U.S. District Court to establish federal H.O.P.E (Helping Offenders Prepare for re-Entry) Court, an alternative program that allows high-risk offenders to reintegrate into the community under court oversight. Thompson served as part of the HOPE Court team and oversaw federal sentence reduction efforts.
“He was obviously a tremendous lawyer, but he was also a tremendous friend,” Assistant Federal Public Defender Kevin Fitzgerald said Monday as news of Thompson’s passing spread. “He was well loved and well respected.”
He served as assistant state public defender in the Rhode Island Public Defender’s Office from 1997 to 2002 and worked in private practice from 2003 to 2008.
U.S District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy worked closely with Thompson for years.
“Olin was the best possible colleague, and my favorite times were working with him. It is impossible to articulate what a tremendous personal loss this is for me. But importantly he was a major part of some of the significant changes the justice system here has made in the past decades,” McElroy said.
She praised his hard work on “common-sense initiatives that make a huge difference in people’s lives.”
“He was brilliant, funny and completely irreverent. But most importantly he was a kind and compassionate person. I relied on Olin throughout my career – even when we no longer worked together – for practical advice grounded in common sense and decency," McElroy said in an email. "ALS is brutal. But Olin tackled it as he did with everything else in life; he fought hard even knowing that the battle would be lost, and he fought with dignity and a wicked sense of humor. He was also a great friend, and I will miss him tremendously."
In 2020, Roger Williams University School of Law bestowed an honorary degree upon him.
"Simply put, Olin has contributed more to the cause of justice and fairness than any other member of the bar of the federal court during my 18 years on the bench," U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith said at the time. "But he is not only a great advocate; he is a truly wonderful person and colleague — honest, tenacious, kind, generous, funny and always helpful. I am so proud that he is receiving this honor. It is so richly deserved."
Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, sometimes a legal foe, offered his thoughts.
“I faced Olin in the courtroom many, many times, including in my last jury trial before becoming United States Attorney. He was a distinguished lawyer, as good as any I have seen, with a keen mind and even temperament. More than that, he was a terrific person, and over time we became friends. He was such a good man, a wonderful husband and father, and my heart breaks for Christa and their children,” Neronha said.
Thompson was a contender for the Superior Court bench before being diagnosed with ALS in late 2018. After the diagnosis, friends credited him for embracing life to the fullest. His wife, Christa, who he met at Camp Fuller, became a national ALS advocate with I AM ALS.
Michael Zarrella, Thompson’s good friend and legal colleague, said Thompson brought friends and loved ones together two weeks ago for a party in preparation for him having his feeding tube removed. The celebration was called “Olin’s Last Dance,” Zarrella said.
For Zarrella, Thompson, a Duke University School of Law graduate, was the guy you wanted at your elbow at trial, no matter the preparation.
“His advice was just tremendous,” Zarrella said. “Good attorneys would go to him for advice. That’s how good he was.”
“He really cared. He dedicated his life to serving the indigent,” Zarrella continued.
Olin is survived by his wife, Christa (Coviello) Thompson, his three sons: Olin IV, Atticus and Nat; his sister, Amanda Thompson, and her partner Frank Sargenti; and his father, Olin Thompson Jr. He is preceded in death by his mother, Maryjane (LaChac) Thompson.
Providence Journal 7/19
PIK95 said:
Aw Man.
He was an inspiration in how he displayed courage and perseverance. He set a sweet example for us.
AAABatteries
Footballguy
Atticus - how fitting.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
Yeah, that’s a life well lived. Married his first love. By all accounts an awesome dad. From what we know of him here - I didn’t know him as well as many of you did - just a all around good dude.
What I learned from him: be touch with with your feelings, be self-aware, and don’t be afraid of being vulnerable.
And, oh by the way, an exemplary career in the unimaginably difficult career choice of being a public defender.
His wife Krista posted this pic from their wedding day on their 22nd anniversary last month. She seems as amazing as him.
I posted a link upthread to the GoFundMe started by a family friend this morning to benefit his boys college education. They’ve raised over $8K in the first six hours.
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ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
####. RIP Olin. You will be missed.
msudaisy26
Footballguy
Another horrible loss. For his family, for all of us who knew him at FBG and for the world.
Steeler
Footballguy
This says a lot about him as a dad and a person, IMO. What compassion showed by his 15yo... amazing.
Rip Olin.
Ramsay Hunt Experience
Footballguy
Aw, man. I’ve known others on this board far more personally, but there was no one here who I respected more. I hope being able to go out somewhat on his own terms brought him and his family a small measure of peace.
simey
Footballguy
