Justice Hugh Thompson to speak at GC&SU Honors Day
Special to The Colonnade
Georgia Supreme Court Justice Hugh Thompson is the recipient of the Georgia College & State University Distinguished Service Award and will speak at Honors Day Convocation at 2 p.m., Friday, April 26, in Russell Auditorium on the university campus. The event honors students who have achieved excellence during the year and recognizes recipients of faculty awards.
The Distinguished Service Award is bestowed by the faculty to a person of outstanding reputation who was 1) born in Georgia and has gained exceptional recognition, or 2) either lives or works, or has lived or worked, in Georgia, thereby bringing esteem and renown to the state.
Thompson is a native of Milledgeville. He completed his undergraduate studies at Oglethorpe University and Emory University and earned a juris doctor degree from Mercer University Law School. He began practicing law in 1969 at Gardner and Peugh in Milledgeville and was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 1971 when he was appointed Recorder’s Court judge for the City of Milledgeville.
Two years later he was appointed by Gov. Jimmy Carter as Judge of Baldwin County (now State Court of Baldwin County). He simultaneously served on both benches and practiced law until 1979, when Gov. George Busbee appointed him Superior Court Judge in the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit. He served in this position for the next 15 years, the last seven as Chief Judge. In 1994 he was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court by Gov. Zell Miller.
From 1993-1994, Thompson served as president of the Statewide Council of Superior Court Judges. He received the alumnus award in 1994 from Mercer University Law School Alumni and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Baldwin County Bar Association in 1993. His other achievements include the Outstanding Public Service Award from the Milledgeville Kiwanis Club in 1988 and the Distinguished Service Award from the Milledgeville Jaycees in 1972.
Thompson’s professional affiliations include the State Bar of Georgia, the Georgia Bar Foundation, American Bar Association, Ocmulgee Circuit Bar Association, Lawyers Club of Atlanta, Old War Horse Lawyers Club, and the Charles Longstreet Weltner Family Law Inn of Court. He is a communicant of St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Milledgeville, where he served on the Vestry from 1989 to 1992. He is a past member of the Milledgeville Jaycees and the Rotary Club.
Thompson is married to the former Jane Diddle, of Knoxville, Tenn., a teacher and speech therapist with the Baldwin County School System. The Thompsons have two sons, William, who is married to the former Shannon Joiner, and Edward.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Apr 5 2002. Filed under News.
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