Retired firefighter, skilled cook, Riverfest’s first Black Admiral dies at 76
Bob Thompson was known as many things: a husband, a father, a firefighter, a Wichita Wagonmaster, a member of the Wichita Riverfest’s operations committee. He also held the distinction of being named the Riverfest’s first-ever Black Admiral Windwagon Smith back in 2003.
But those who knew Thompson, who died on Sunday at age 76, say he was also well known for his cooking prowess. A consummate barbecue chef, Thompson was one of Wichita’s most knowledgeable meat smokers, and he often used that knowledge to serve others.
“I think that Bobby could probably have forgotten more than I’ll learn in my life about smoking,” said Ethan Pounds, who for the past eight years has cooked alongside Thompson for Security 1st Title’s marketing and sales team.
In fact, the last time many of Thompson’s close friends saw him was at a big cook. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Thompson helped lead an annual event where the Wagonmasters — a civic group of around 100 Wichita professional men — smoked 300 turkeys to give to local families in need.
“There wasn’t anybody else like Bobby,” Pounds said. “With his wealth of knowledge and experience and his connections with the community and across the state of Kansas, it seemed like everywhere we went, Bobby knew somebody.”
Thompson, a married father of two adult daughters, was born in 1949 in West Point, Mississippi, but raised in Junction City, where his family owned a restaurant and boarding house. That’s when his love of cooking began, Pounds said.
“Between that, and as he told me, his interest in chemistry, he found a love of food and how you could affect cleaner profiles and results through the long, slow process that smoking needs, to make an incomparable product,” Pounds said.
Thompson graduated from Junction City High School in 1967. He then met his wife, Joyce, at Grace Hospital in Hutchinson: She was a nurse, and he was an EMT.
They were married in 1972 and moved to Wichita in 1975, when he was hired as a firefighter. Thompson worked his way up through the ranks of the Wichita Fire Department, earning the titles of lieutenant, then captain, then Chief Prevention Officer. He retired from the department in 2016.
Thompson’s retirement years were filled with volunteering for charity organizations like United Way, Children’s Miracle Network, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the NAACP. He also worked as part of Security 1st’s barbecue team, which traveled around the region putting on barbecues for employees or at charity events.
Thompson, who became a member of the Wichita Wagonmasters in 2000, also was active in the annual Wichita Wagonmasters Downtown Chili Cookoff. People involved with that event knew him as “Cookie” because he would always lead the crew of cooks as it prepared 300 gallons of chili.
Ken Atnip, a fellow Wichita Wagonmaster and another past Admiral Windwagon Smith, said Thompson was the go-to for Wagonmasters who were interested in cooking and smoking meats. Thompson would always take Atnip’s cooking calls, he said, and he always had the answers to his questions.
“In my view, he was the gold standard of guys,” said Atnip, a retired Wichita Police captain who first met Thompson when both were working for the city. “He understood community “
Thompson’s involvement with the Wichita River Festival started in 1985, when he was sent to inspect the festival offices for fire code violations. He didn’t find any, but he did find a new interest. While there, he asked how he could get involved, and three days later, he had an assignment: marking off the street for the Sundown Parade.
Two years after that, he joined the festival’s operations committee and over the years also served on the festival board. For many years, he’s been in charge of organizing the festival’s ice cream social.
Though Thompson had all the qualifications to become Admiral Windwagon Smith — the ceremonial figurehead for the festival, who wears a red jacket and an admiral’s hat — the festival had a long history of naming only white males to the position. Though Linda Davidson changed that in 1999 when she was named the festival’s first female admiral, Thompson once said that he didn’t think he, a Black man, had a shot.
But in 2003, he was named the festival’s first ever Black Admiral.
“It shows that no matter who you are or what color you are, there’s hope,” Thomspon told The Wichita Eagle in 2003. “Anything can happen.”
In 2023, Kaye Monk-Morgan made history again when she was named the festival’s first-ever Black female admiral. She later learned, she said, that Thompson had submitted her name for the role. When she got it, he threw her a big party — and of course, did all the cooking.
Thompson understood the significant role he played in Riverfest — and in Wichita — history, Monk-Morgan said.
“He wore it with pride. He saw it as an accomplishment — not just a personal accomplishment but a recognition of service for lots of folks that look like him, who support the festival in lots of different ways,” she said. “He went out of his way to be a very vocal proponent of creating opportunities throughout the festival footprint that spoke to a very diverse group of Wichitans and Kansans and folks who might want to visit our fair city.”
Monk-Morgan said that the past admirals recently got together to talk about nominees for the 2026 Admiral Windwagon Smith. Thompson was in the hospital and couldn’t attend, but Monk-Morgan texted him the names of the nominees, asking for his thoughts.
He responded and told her he’d be out of the hospital in time for the final vote. She texted him again on Sunday when she hadn’t heard from him. That’s when she found out he had died.
“He just had a generosity of spirit that poured into generations,” Monk-Morgan said. “Folks often say stuff like, ‘I am because they were.’ I literally can look at Bob and say, ‘I am because he was.’”
According to his obituary, Thompson is survived by his wife, Joyce Lynn Thompson; daughters and their husbands, Leslie Kathleen (Jon) Garrelts, Jennifer Kristine (Matt) Myers; grandchildren, Corinne Myers, Audie Myers, Cameron Garrelts, Kylie Garrelts and Selah Myers; sisters, Linda Sue Bersch and Linda Rae Nickles; and brother, Freddie Austin.
A visitation will happen from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Downing & Lahey East Mortuary, 6555 E. Central. Services will be at 10 a.m. Monday at First Evangelical Free Church, 1825 N. Woodlawn.
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