Harlan Howard Thompson, who parlayed his experiences as a rancher into a successful series of children's books, died Friday, October 9, 1987, in a Pasadena hospital.  The 92-year-old author was probably best known for "Prairie Colt," which won the Boys' Club of America Gold Medal in 1948.

Thompson, born in Kansas, but raised on his family's ranch in Canada, came to Southern California as a youth, where he attended South Pasadena High School and USC.  In his younger years he returned to that ranch to work, but an injury forced him to give up that physically demanding life and he turned to writing, publishing the first of more than a dozen books, "Wild Palomino," in 1946.  His other works include "Phantom Roan" and a 1960 series, "We Were There With the California Rancheros."

A past president of PEN International, a writers' organization, Thompson is survived by his wife, Gertrude, one son, three daughters, six grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

Los Angeles Times, October 14, 1987