Health City developer and entrepreneur Gene Thompson dies at 59

Tributes have flooded in for entrepreneur and developer Gene Thompson, the man who helped bring Health City to the Cayman Islands.

Thompson died Tuesday afternoon after a long battle with cancer. He was 59.

Friends and family remembered him as a devout Christian and a generous man who combined an infectious positivity with a steely resolve that helped him become one of Cayman’s most respected businessmen.

He was also a much-loved husband to Melisa and father to two daughters, Katie and Holly.

Through his Thompson Development business, he was involved in commercial and retail development, real estate and resorts.

Though he had varied business interests, including Dolphin Discovery, Total Healthcare and the Divers, Office and Sports Supply stores, Thompson is remembered as a ‘visionary’ who was always looking to forge new territory for the Cayman Islands.

He was a driving force behind legislative changes that helped bring health tourism to the Cayman Islands. More recently, he spearheaded the Tech Cayman project with the aim of carving out a new niche for the islands in the technology sector.

His greatest public legacy is undoubtedly Health City Cayman Islands, which opened in East End in 2014.

He also had a passion for education and opportunity, providing thousands of educational scholarships for young people at the East End hospital.

“Most people know that healthcare services in the Cayman Islands have been revolutionised recently and a lot of that is because of Health City,” said his brother Kel Thompson.

Gene Thompson was a founding member of Cayman Islands Real Estate Brokers Association, a director of Cayman Islands Investment Council, and a founding member of Have A Heart Cayman Islands, a charity which brought children from all over the world to the islands for life-saving cardiac operations.

Outside of his public persona, Thompson was known for his quiet generosity. His family would find out, years after the fact, that he had helped fund someone’s education or paid their medical bills without ever seeking thanks or recognition.

He was deeply involved with the Seventh Day Adventist Church and was instrumental in establishing its George Town headquarters.

“Gene was certainly not a doctor or a preacher, but he was the one who put everything in place to allow those things to happen,” added Kel Thompson, who said he had lost a “dear brother”.

“He was a generous fella,” he said. “He was a bad little boy when he was a youngster so how he came out so good, I will never know.”

Outside of work, church and family, Thompson loved the ocean. He was a keen fisherman and an excellent water-skier in his younger days, said Kel.

Though he had been seriously ill for the past several years, Thompson never wavered in either his faith or his positivity.

“He had a lot he could have complained about but he never did,” Kel said.

“One thing I can say about him is he never learned how to quit. He didn’t know how to do it. He fought his disease with the same mindset.”

‘No was not an option’

Thompson’s long-term business partner Harry Chandi uses a similar expression to describe his approach to the many challenges and doubts the pair faced as they sought to bring Dr. Devi Shetty’s hospital to the island.

“The word no was not in his vocabulary. No was not an option for Gene Thompson,” said Chandi.

That belief and ability to navigate administrative road blocks and to find solutions for problems others saw as insurmountable was the “magic” he brought to every project, said Chandi.

“A lot of people told us the hospital was a pipe dream, that it could not be done,” he said. “We did it under budget in less than a year and that would never have happened without Gene.

“I brought the global relationships and he brought the relationships from Cayman. It was the perfect fit.”

Chandi argues that many lives have been saved because of Thompson’s commitment to get the project over the line, not least during COVID-19 when the hospital played a pivotal role in fighting the pandemic and ensuring continuity of care as the borders closed.

“Health City has touched every Cayman family,” said Chandi, who believes his friend and partner will be remembered as a national hero.

“There are people that wouldn’t be alive today if it was not for that hospital. Cayman should erect a hundred statues to Gene Thompson,” he said.

On a personal level, Chandi said he felt like he had “lost a brother”.

“We have been partners for 23 years and we never had a disagreement.”

‘A true Caymanian’

Businessman Gary Rutty, a friend and a second cousin to Thompson, said the island had lost a “true Caymanian”.

He said, “Gene was the most optimistic, faith-based person you could possibly know. He never took on a task that he couldn’t accomplish, and he took on some of the biggest challenges that anyone in Cayman has ever attempted.”

“The top notch healthcare system we have in Cayman right now is thanks to him,” Rutty said. “It has helped so many people through COVID and everything else.”

Rutty, who grew up in the same George Town neighbourhood as Thompson, alongside a group of friends and cousins that includes Randy Merren and Dale Crighton, said Gene had been like an older brother and a mentor to many of them.

Merren and former Calico Jack’s owner Handel Whittaker also paid their respects yesterday, describing Thompson as an inspirational figure.

Whittaker said he had helped him in all his business ventures, even to the point of washing dishes in Calico Jack’s as he struggled to get that venture off the ground.

What shone through most was his positivity.

Rutty added, “I asked him recently ‘Do you ever ask, God, why me? And he said, ‘Never, I ask why not me? I have the means and the resources to fight it unlike so many people.’”

His niece, Candice Thompson, said that his positivity and faith were unshakable throughout her uncle’s long illness.

“He never let any part of it get him down and he never ever gave up. Even though the diagnosis was not very hopeful, he fought it so hard, for so long.”

Though he was community minded and a people person, she said, he was also family focused.

“Melisa and his girls and his wider family were very important to him and he showed it every day. For his family, the loss is indescribable,” she said.

Faith and second chances

David Legge, a former publisher of the Cayman Compass and a friend and colleague of Thompson for many years, remembered his devotion to his family, especially his mother.

He said he was a devout man and big believer in second chances, something he demonstrated by hiring a number of former prisoners on the construction project to build Health City.

“He was determined that there should be as many Caymanians as possible on site and he was willing to hire people who had been to Northward Prison that many others would not have taken a chance on.”

Legge believes Thompson, along with former Premier McKeeva Bush and Harry Chandi, will be remembered as the architects of Health City and the people who helped revolutionise healthcare on the islands.

“It was not an easy sell in the early days but Gene was indefatigable in surmounting all those hurdles,” said Legge.

The next chapter

Thompson was also involved in another project to bring a new hospital, Cayman Aster Medcity, to West Bay, though the status of that development was unclear at the time of his death.

His primary passion over the last few years was the Tech Cayman project.

He campaigned successfully to bring in new intellectual property legislation to create the possibility for tech companies to come to the island.

Jennifer McCarthy, operations and business development manager at Tech Cayman, said there were currently around 15 international companies operating under the umbrella of the service provider.

She said Thompson was someone who saw opportunities where others saw challenges, and worked relentlessly to turn his ideas into reality.

She said he was civic minded and driven by a desire both to diversify Cayman’s economy and create opportunities for future generations.

“His family had been very blessed and he felt it was his duty and his honour to make sure future generations had the same kind of opportunities.”

McCarthy said Tech Cayman seeks to hire firms that will create opportunities for local people. It also includes an educational programme.

“With tech, he felt there would be no boundaries and no barriers to success for children on a small island,” she said.

“This was not a short-time plan for Gene. He would talk in 25-year segments.”

Without its founder, she said, Tech Cayman would continue to forge ahead, in the same mould.

“We certainly plan to honour his legacy and grow this sector as much as we can and create as many opportunities as we can,” she said.