Deborah (Deb) Thomson, 74, passed away on October 19, 2023, from Parkinson’s disease.
Deb was a lifelong advocate for the elderly and the disabled. After graduating from Penn State and George Washington School of Law, she began her legal services career in 1975 as an elder law attorney at Tri-County Legal Aid in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1981 she, her husband and two dogs, moved to Lowell, Massachusetts where she had been hired as head of the elder law unit at Merrimack Valley Legal Services. She then worked at the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and as Policy Director for the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Association.
She left the Alzheimer’s Association to start a one-person lobbying firm, The Pass Group, where she represented elder and disability groups in the state legislature. Among her many awards, in 2014 the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys created the Deborah H. Thomson Advocacy Award, with Deb as its first recipient.
She is survived by her partner of 45 years, Jim Breslauer, their son Andy Nguyen, grandchildren Sandra and Eric Nguyen, her sister Barbara Thomson and her niece Meredith Hoffman-Thomson. Deb was intelligent, articulate and really cared. She is missed by many.