Obituary: Mark Thompson

By ANNE GIBSON

As the third-generation heir to the Barfoot & Thompson real estate agency fortune, Mark Thompson was well qualified to run the large business which boasts that it sells one out of every three Auckland houses.

The elder son of Mary and John Thompson, he was born in Auckland in 1958. His brother, Peter, was born in 1962. The two boys were raised at the family's Kohimarama home.

Thompson attended St Thomas' Primary School in Kohimarama and was a member of the Kohimarama Yacht Club, where he sailed his boat, Snuff, in championship races.

He went to Auckland Grammar School in 1971, where he was a keen rugby player and sailor, then to Auckland University, where he completed a bachelor of commerce and a law degree. After graduating, he worked for Auckland law firm Wallace McLean Bawden & Partners, which later became Kensington Swan.

Thompson's father, John, had died of a heart attack in 1980, aged 47, and in 1982 Mark Thompson was invited to join the family firm, which was set up in 1923 by Val Barfoot. Thompson's grandfather, Maurice Thompson, joined shortly afterwards.

The young Thompson studied for his real-estate agent's licence and was a salesman at branch offices in Onehunga, Mairangi Bay, Mission Bay and at Barfoot & Thompson Commercial. Within six months he became one of the firm's top 12 sellers.

He managed the Otahuhu branch before joining the head office in the city. He became a director of Barfoot & Thompson in 1989.

Thompson married Margot (nee Dixon) in 1986. The couple had two children, Matthew, 11, and Nicola, 8.

Thompson was a member of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and raced regularly in the winter series. He was also a board member of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and co-founder and chairman of www.realestate.co.nz.