The registrar at Elgin Community College for 17 of her 21 years at the school, Roberta A. Thompson took her role seriously. “She was the third registrar in the history of the college,” said her husband, Daniel Thompson. “Her signature is on a lot of transcripts.” Mrs. Thompson, 65, died of cancer Sunday, Jan. 11, in her Elgin home. Born in Newark, N.J., she grew up in Pennsylvania and got married and started a family before she finished high school. She later obtained a GED and went to Life Bible College in Los Angeles. After being ordained a minister in 1967, she moved to Elgin and became a minister at Four Square Church for about six years. She then worked as an inspector for Chicago Rawhide in Elgin, before taking a job in the administrations office at the college in 1980. Divorced in 1973, she met Daniel, who also worked for the college, in 1993. They got married in 2001. She retired that year because of illness. At the college, she was known for her baked goods, bringing in containers of cookies and homemade banana cream pie. “The most important thing in her life was going to Willow Creek Church [in South Barrington]; we went twice a week, as long as she could possibly do it,” her husband said. Other survivors include a son, Ronald Haskins; her father, Floyd Lindsey; a brother, Mark Lindsey; two sisters, Kathleen Estabrook and Penny Estabrook; and four grandchildren. Visitation will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday in Laird Funeral Home, 310 S. State St., Elgin. Services will be held at 1 p.m. Friday in the funeral home.
