Robert (Bob) Thomas Thompson, Jr. (74) passed away on September 24, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia after recently having moved from Kansas City, Missouri.  He was well known for his wit, expansive vocabulary, love of words, and his ability to tell a good story or joke. He was the son of Robert Thomas Thompson, Sr. (deceased) and Elaine Cheshire Thompson (deceased) of Greenville, South Carolina.

He was born at Emory University Hospital on October 6, 1951 and he continued to play a major role with Emory University throughout his life.  In childhood, he grew up in Atlanta attending Morris Brandon School for Boys through age twelve when his parents moved to Greenville, South Carolina.  He attended Hughes Middle School, and then enrolled in the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee for his high school years, where he graduated cum laude in 1969.  After graduation, he attended Emory College where he attained a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude with a major in History in (1972) where he was also President of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and President of the Intrafraternity Council and inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa honorary leadership society.  He then attended law school at Emory School of Law where he received a Juris Doctor (1975), and later he would go on to receive a Masters of Arts in History and Political Science from the Emory Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1989).  He also attended Emory Medical School for years of study before setting up a law firm in Atlanta with a colleague whom he attended law school with.  He withdrew from medical school to assist his father, a well recognized labor lawyer, to work for his father’s law firm Thompson Mann & Hutson LLP with offices in Atlanta, Greenville, Washington D.C., and New York, New York, where he would become Partner and Member of the Management Committee and go on to work there for 13 years.

In 1981, he moved his law practice from Atlanta to Greenville, South Carolina to focus his practice of law on various business ventures.  During the 1980s while in Greenville, he was General Counsel to the Greenville Chamber of Commerce, on the Board of the Greenville Zoo, Chairman of the Greenville Medical Health Commission, and advised on issues of arts and cultural awareness at the Greenville Museum.  

In 1986, he founded Resource One, Inc., a drug testing lab and employee rehabilitation program company in Greenville, South Carolina where he was the Chairman of the Board.  The company was the first and leading laboratory in South Carolina to achieve the highest government laboratory certification available.  The company was later sold to Puckett Laboratory out of Harrisburg, Mississippi.

During the beginning in 1985, he became heavily involved with Alcoholics Anonymous, where he led alcohol and drug testing and rehabilitation programs.  He wrote a book titled Substance Abuse and Employee Rehabilitation, the first edition of which was published in 1990 by the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA Books) out of Washington, D.C..  The book was published in two subsequent editions. 

In 1992, due to his book and his substance abuse work personally and professionally crossed over business and legal issues, he was selected by President George H.W. Bush to serve on the President’s Commission on Model State Drug Laws, where he served as the Chairman of the Drug Free Families, Schools and Workplaces Task Force.  When the administration changed in 1993, he was reappointed as Chair to the Committee by President Bill Clinton.  He was also appointed to be a member of the South Carolina Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Servicing (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Issues), worked on matters concerning worker’s compensation and drug programs, and he received recognition from Georgia Governor Zelle Miller for his work on behalf of Georgians.  He was also appointed to be on the South Carolina Drug and Alcohol Abuse Commission (SCAAC) by Governor Carrol Campell.

In the early 1990’s, he moved back to Atlanta and established his own law firm, Thompson & Associates, and represented clients on workplace employment matters.  He also was selected by Dean Woody Hunter of Emory Law School to be an Adjunct Professor of Law teaching labor and employment law at Emory School of Law, where he taught for 25 years.

His interest in his alma mater, Emory University, became a lifelong focus for many years having been elected to the Board of Trustees of Emory University, having served as the Chairman of the Alumni Fund and Alumni Association, served as Chairman of the Graduate School Advisory Counsel, being on the Board of Visitors for 10 years, and serving as President of the Interfraternity Counsel.  He was born at Emory, educated at Emory, taught at Emory Law School, and served on numerous committees and entities at Emory.  He also established the Robert T. Thompson, Sr. Professorship in Business Law in honor of his father, also an Emory School of Law graduate, and helped raise millions of dollars for Emory University.

In his law career, he practiced law in Atlanta, Greenville, South Carolina, Washington, D.C., and New York, New York, specializing in labor and employment law, and banking law.  He was involved in numerous high profile cases such as setting the 20-year war between J.P. Stevens & Co. and the union, Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU), and worked on labor cases for J.P. Stevens, some of which formed the basis of the 1979 Academy Award winning film Norma Rae.  He also represented the NBA All-Star player Latrrell Sprewell in 1997 who had been barred from the NBA for a year for a choking incident with his coach, which case went up to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  Sprewell was later traded to the New York Nicks under a lucrative contract where he helped lead the team to the 1999 NBA Finals.

He always described himself as an eclectic with regards to his intellectual, personal, legal, public service interests and achievements.  His biggest challenge was to describe a difficult and complex subject, dig in and future it out, and then be able to explain it or teach it to others in a concise, simplified manner that could be easily understood.  He was in his element when issues of legal, medical, banking, finance, fundraising, substance abuse, international banking coincided.

He was fortunate enough to have achieved business and community achievements such as being on the Board of the Merchant Bank of Atlanta which was later sold to Bank of America, Vice Chairman of the Georgia Center for Abused and Neglected Children (CASA), and founder of the Bank of the Caribbean, including the BOC Holding Company, Ltd. in Barbados, West Indies.

He was a proud Methodist and regularly attended religious services at Northside United Methodist Church in Atlanta, Buncombe Street Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, and Resurrection Methodist Church in Kansas City, Missouri.

But by far his pride and joy and greatest achievement was raising his four children who he always loved and was deeply proud of their successes, including Robert (Bob) Thomas Thompson, III, Esq. (Venice, CA), Lace Grace Thompson (Dallas, TX), Broughton Spencer Thompson (Atlanta, GA), Grady Churchill Thompson (Phoenix, AZ).  The first child was from his marriage to Deidre Marie Jaros Thompson (deceased), and the later three were from his marriage to Anne Lacy Churchill Thompson (deceased).

Upon retirement, he moved with his younger children Lacy, Broughton, and Grady to Kansas City, Missouri with the great help of his living children and his brothers Randy and David Thompson and their wives, as well as the many Alcoholics Anonymous friends that he made in that wonderful city.  He was also a strong supporter of the recovering community, having been in the AA program for 40 years.

He leaves behind his children and brothers, Randall Cheshire Thompson, M.D., David Lane Thompson, Esq., grandson Micahel Ascher Thompson De Souza, niece, Dr. Elaine Thompson, M.D., nephew, Adam McGill Thompson, great friend Henry (Hank) Nichols, III, and longtime friend Yale Sage.

In lieu of any flowers or gifts, the Thompson family requests that donations be made in memory of Robert (Bob) Thomas Thompson, Jr. via: https://giveahand.com/fundraiser/thompson-family