Herbert G. Thompson

Herbert Gordon Thompson, Jr. careened into the world in 1921. Born on a chicken farm, in Hamilton, Ohio during the depression, he was one of nine children, but the only one to finish high school, college and graduate school. Despite his surroundings, he was befriended by some classmates who wanted a better future, so with their encouragement and his Uncle Miles & Aunt Ilda, he went to college to make something of his life. Despite resistance from his family, who felt he was trying to be better than they were, he went on with borrowed funds from Uncle Miles ( who he paid back) and enrolled at Miami of Ohio. His education was interrupted by WWII and he enlisted in the Air Force where he flew gliders and was honorably discharged upon completion of his service after the war. During that time, he met and married Juanita Malone; together they had four children while traversing through the college towns of University of Miami, Millikan University and Western Michigan University before being noticed by Texas A&M.

In 1951 he was recruited to Texas A&M College to become one of the new Professors to build what was then the Department of Business under Thomas W. Leland and part of the Team to create the College Of Business, now the Mays School of Business. As a pioneer of the school, he served as the Head of Marketing and played a role to recruit more new academia to build the new Business School. Later under the guidance of President James Earl Rudder, he worked to help bring in the first Dean of the School of Business and the College to become accredited by American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. His stories of how Texas A&M evolved under President Rudder and the intertwining’s of how the community and University worked together to recruit, house and accommodate academia to bring the best Professors to TAMU are quite amazing. He was an avid hunter and fisherman and he bonded with sales executives as he shared knowledge on the best students and they shared theirs on what the needs of how the students needed to be prepared. He took those real world inputs and used that in the classroom to prepare his students for the road ahead. He used his teaching skills to equip Texas A&M’s best and brightest as they went out into the real world of sales and marketing. He took great pride in the success of his students and his focus on teaching Salesmanship led to a lifetime of relationships with former students and sales executives all over the world. Throughout his career, he was honored with many teaching and faculty awards by the Texas A&M University and by the Association of Former Students Association.

Along with his contributions to Texas A&M, Herb was a high school football official for over 20 years, traveling the state officiating under Friday night lights. He was named College Station Man of the Year in 1955 in appreciation for his community contributions and leadership through several service organizations. In addition to his engaging career, he enjoyed years of fishing and hunting with friends, traveling through several continents and crisscrossing the United States while visiting his children and grandchildren.

May he rest in peace…