Lew Thompson: Former Owner of Forest Dunes Gone Too Soon

Lew Thompson was a trucker. Which is to say, he hauled things from point A to point B. Mostly poultry. And he did it over and over and over again. One truck became two. Then it was 200. His son, Josh, came on board. And eventually they sold Lew Thompson & Son Trucking in 2023—620 trucks and 1,200 trailers—for $100 million.

Thompson, 66, who had survived a variety of health complications, including a heart attack, died in his sleep at his home in Huntsville, Arkansas on Monday night. He will be missed. And my thoughts are with his family.

Along the winding roads of life and business, Thompson found golf. The tall and lanky high-handicapper talked a lot of smack and had a lot of quick and catchy sayings. If he'd blow one OB off the tee, he'd quip: "He gone!" And he'd move on.

A regular at my annual Uncle Tony Invitational at Bandon Dunes, Thompson could hold a room and tell a story, but no story was better than his own. Which includes the purchase of Forest Dunes in Roscommon, Michigan.

In 2020, sitting around an actual fire pit outside of what was his home at Forest Dunes, I asked Thompson to tell us the story of how he bought the place. This Fire Pit Podcast is all about the ridiculous deal he got, who he bought it from and how he made the remote location a legitimate destination. As Forest Dunes was breaking business records and was set to open yet another golf course, we hear from Lew and Josh Thompson, Tom Weiskopf, Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns.

I'll forever remember Thompson ripping around The Loop in his zippy cart, chasing down his two grandsons. Those were his favorite people and that was his happy place.

"He gone!" Way too soon.