Thompson House A&M Inc.: this multi-million dollar business, which operates in Southeast Alaska, had early beginnings.

• Author: McCorkle, Vern C.
• Position: Alaska's 2004 Top Women-Owned Businesses Issue

Operating from five locations with more than 110 employees and gross revenues that average between $5 million and $10 million annually, Marge Young, president of Thompson House A&M Inc., is a phenomenon. Those who have known the enterprising businesswoman all her life are not surprised.

"She is an icon of the business community," according to Grace Kirkwood, immediate past president of the Prince of Wales Island Chamber of Commerce. "She is a very caring person and gives back in significant ways to the towns in which she operates."

Kirkwood refers to one particular program whereby patrons may insert their cash register tapes into canisters for charities or persons who have suffered personal tragedies. Young's business makes contributions to the cause based upon a percentage of the total value of the register tapes contained in the canisters. Often such charitable contributions amount to hundreds of dollars.

Marge Young was born Marjorie Thompson on Prince of Wales Island, located about 300 miles (as the crow flies) south southeast of Juneau. That she went into business is no surprise to anyone who has known her from earliest times. When she was just a youngster, her family operated several businesses in Craig, including a general store, a bakery, a bar and liquor store, a laundry and a rooming-boarding house. That was the "house" that came to be known as "Thompson House," a name that has carried over to today, even though the business has greatly changed and expanded since the 1950s and 1960s.

Her mother and grandmother were born and grew up on Prince of Wales Island. Since both were active in community and business affairs, it was a natural that when she graduated from high school in Ketchikan, Young would come home to help her mother in the family businesses.

After her mother died in early 1965, Young took over the Hill Bar and laundry businesses in order to help her father. In December she married Alvin Young.

In 1969, local folks asked Thompson House to order case lots for them and soon it turned into small retail sales in one wing of her parent's home. Thus began a tradition of responding to requests from local patrons that has continued to this time.

In 1973, they purchased some equipment and set up a small grocery store with fresh produce, milk and frozen meats. As the business grew, the family found it more difficult to operate from the home and moved to a new location.

In 1979, a decision was made to build a new bar adjacent to the...