The gift of $6.6 million from the family of Wade F.B. Thompson, toward the cost of the magnificent new exhibition building at Mystic Seaport named for him, may not set a record for philanthropy around here, but it certainly is close.

The contribution for the new building is a gift not just to the museum, but to the region.

As Seaport President Stephen White said at the dedication of the striking, wave-inspired building, what he called a new icon for the region, the new exhibition space represents a new era at the Mystic museum.

The soaring new exhibition space will provide an entirely new year-round experience for visitors and, with its ability to showcase more significant exhibits, will allow the Seaport to participate and compete in a larger museum world.

The Thompson Exhibition Building not only will help draw more tourists to the Seaport and Mystic, but it instantly became an impressive new anchor for an evolving new Route 27 gateway into the state's tourism capital, with more open space and river views to greet visitors.

Thompson, who died in 2009 at the age of 69, was a longtime trustee of the Seaport who was a champion of the idea of repurposing the northern side of the Seaport campus, with a new museum entrance and better exhibit space.

Thompson, a native of New Zealand who immigrated with his wife to the United States, made his fortune building a company that became the country's largest manufacturer of recreation vehicles and buses. He and a partner started by buying the nearly defunct Hi-Lo Trailer Co. in 1976, for less than $1 million, after the gas crisis had taken its toll on the trailer industry, according to his New York Times obituary. They later bought the money-losing maker of Airstream trailers and revived the iconic brand, reinventing the long-revered ovoid-shaped, aluminum-sided trailers.

The Times obituary recalled an anecdote about Thompson showing up at Airstream's headquarters in Jackson Center, Ohio, after the acquisition, handing out black pens and telling employees the company would never lose money again.

It didn't. At its peak in 2006, the Times reported, the company sold more than 100,000 trailers, buses and motor homes.

At the recent dedication of the new Seaport building, Thompson's daughter told the story of how her parents became close friends of the Mallory family, one of the founding families of Mystic Seaport, and she and her brother spent summers as kids working at the museum. The family lived in New York but had a summer house in East Lyme.

I had a chance to speak after the dedication ceremony with George C. White, founder of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, who served with Thompson as a trustee of the Seaport.

White, who had just come back from a ceremony in Washington, D.C., in which President Barack Obama awarded the National Medal of Arts to the O'Neill center, recalled the day many years ago that Thompson announced he would give $5 million toward the new building.

Trustees had been wringing their hands about the cost of the north-end improvements, tossing around small numbers, when Thompson stood up and silenced the room, White said.

"I will donate $5 million," he recalled Thompson promising, in addition to a pledge of more money if it were matched. In the end, the family and its foundation has donated a total of $6.6 million.

Close to $7 million seems like a breathtaking amount to contribute, until you put it in the perspective of Thompson's great philanthropy. It is also a significant part of $15 million in improvements to the entire northern end of the Seaport campus.

The signature beneficiary of Thompson donations has been the historic Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan, to which he and his family and foundation have donated more than $129 million, helping rescue the landmark building and creating a new world-class arts venue. Thompson and his allies created a conservancy for the building, similar to the one that cares for Central Park.

According to an article on Thompson by Inside Philanthropy, the Thompson Family Foundation reported in 2014 having assets of more than $545 million.

Thompson, who died of complications from colon cancer, also gave generously to cancer causes, including the Drive Against Prostate Cancer in 2000, in which two medical vehicles his company built traveled coast to coast offering free screenings to more than 100,000 men.

Wade Thompson was honored two years before he died by the Cancer Research Institute for his long service toward promoting and funding cancer research.

How lucky Mystic is to now have such a prominent and important building that bears his name, a monument, too, to generosity.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com