William Richardson Thompson

William R. “Tommy” Thompson, Retired Deputy Director ATF, dies at 86. William R. Thompson once told his family that he used his “good judgment” to turn down an offer by G. Gordon Liddy in the 1970s to become part of the Nixon White House administration. Instead, he concluded a successful 26-year federal government career in 1975 after rising to the ranks of Deputy Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) in Washington, D.C. Thompson died Friday evening, April 22, 2011 in Newnan after an extended illness. Born in Seale, Alabama on May 17, 1924, Thompson was the youngest of seven children and the son of a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier. After the death of his father, he moved to Atlanta in 1938 to live with his older brother, George and his wife. He worked as a bag boy at Big Star after school and helped his classmates at both Joe Brown Middle School and Tech High with their homework to help pay $50 a month to live in a boarding house near Gordon Street. He enlisted in the Army in 1943 and was stationed at Pearl Harbor for 37 days before heading to Guam to repair airplane radios. It was in radio school that he met his first wife, Mildred Burke, of Donaldsonville, GA and they were married just before departing for the war. After the war, he returned to Atlanta and graduated from Atlanta Law School in 1949 before starting his career with the Internal Revenue Service as a field agent or “revenuer” as they were often called in the day. Agents were responsible for enforcing the ban on private production and sale of whiskey or “moonshine” as it was known. Patience was one of the prerequisites for the job as agents waited in the field for hours and sometimes days until the perpetrators returned to the stills to be arrested. Thompson began his career in the Miami field office. It didn’t take long for him to move up in the ranks to a supervisory capacity. His IRS department eventually became a division of the Treasury Department known as the ATF. Thompson was promoted to Regional chief of the Southeast office in Atlanta in the late 1960s before taking the Deputy Director slot in Washington D.C. in 1973. Upon retirement, Thompson moved back to Georgia and settled in Newnan. He and his wife became active in the Newnan First United Methodist Church and concentrated on helping senior citizens in the community. Under the Thompson influence and constant urging to the Coweta County Commissioners, a center for the senior citizens was erected on Hospital Road in Newnan that is known as the Tommy Thompson Senior Citizen Center."If it hadn't been for this man standing in front of the County Commission with the proposal to do this bulding, it never would have gotten built," said then Coweta County Commissioner Robert Wood in an interview with the Newnan Times Herald in February, 2000. "Let me tell you, he wore the county out to get this building," said Wood. After the death of his first wife in 1984, Thompson married Barbara Sprayberry Hawk in 1985, and the two lived at their home in Newnan since that time. The funeral is Monday, April 25, 2011 at 2:00 pm at Newnan First United Methodist Church with Dr. Med Roach & Rev. Gary Parrish officiating. Burial will follow at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. The visitation is Sunday evening between 6:00 – 8:00 at McKoon Funeral Home, 38 Jackson St, Newnan. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Newnan First United Methodist Church, 33 Greenville St, Newnan, GA 30263 or to the Tommy Thompson Senior Citizen Center, 29 Hospital Rd, Newnan, GA 30263. Condolences can be expressed online at www.mckoon.com Mr. Thompson is survived by his wife, Barbara; son & daughter-in-law Sam & Debra Thompson of Lake Arrowhead, GA; daughter Cassandra Thompson Gunn of Newnan; step-daughter & her husband, Debra & Bruce Gourley & their daughter Elizabeth of Manhattan, Montana; and two grandchildren, Ashley Gunn Norvick of Newnan and William Gunn, Jr. of Carrollton. McKoon Funeral Home (770) 253-4580

William Richardson Thompson

May 17, 1924 - April 22, 2011