GU remembers Professor Frank H. Thompson, 1929-2021
Published: January 25, 2022
Greenville University Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religion Frank H. Thompson died December 10, 2021, in Alexandria, Virginia. He was 92.
Thompson served GU for 28 years and chaired the University’s Department of Philosophy and Religion for all but three of them.
Upon his arrival in 1967, Thompson welcomed opportunities to influence students both spiritually and intellectually and regarded his call to the classroom as Christian vocation. In time, however, that vocation evolved into something much more. Ten years after his installation as professor, he told an interviewer, “Teaching is my life-blood.”
Hard questions, important conversation, and good scholarship
With a staggering breadth of expertise, Thompson led students through the landscapes of
- Biblical theology in the Old and New Testaments,
- the prophets,
- wisdom literature,
- the life of Christ, and
- the writings of John.
He gave them tools to expand their understanding—Greek, Hebrew, Bible study methods, and insights into Biblical geography. He helped them dig deep into challenging issues. Former students recall his classroom as the place where hard questions intersected with important conversation and good scholarship—all Thompson's inescapable passions.
Truth whatever its source
Former student-turned-pastor Mark Van Valin tells a story of returning to his alma mater to address students in chapel. Thompson sat in the front, responding to the young man's message with "amens," and "yeses," and "other timely utterances of approval and wonder." Van Valin soon figured out that the affirmations were not for him.
. . . it came, rather, out of some kind of inner dialogue that Frank seemed to always have within—dialogue with the idea, or even the Author of Truth Himself. It didn't seem to matter to him whether truth came from a distinguished scholar, an elder sage, or out of the mouth of a young white-knuckled prophet. Truth was truth to him, and whatever its source, it was worthy of his full and reverent attention.
- Mark Van Valin, "To Know Him Better," from My Name is Frank, and That's Who I Am: Essays in Honor of Frank H. Thompson (Greenville College, 2015)
Honors, recognition, and service
GU’s student body and alumni association each recognized Thompson for his outstanding teaching, as did the University. Then President W. Richard Stephens presented Thompson with an honorary doctorate in 1990. Thompson retired five years later.
Thompson filled various leadership roles in the community during his years in Greenville, including
- chairman of the Bond County Board,
- president of the Southwestern Illinois Law Enforcement Commission, and
- president of Greenville’s Kiwanis Club.
In 1998, he gained recognition as Volunteer of the Year at Greenville’s Federal Correctional Institution.
Thompson completed his undergraduate studies at Seattle Pacific University, and held advanced degrees from Asbury Seminary, St. Louis University, and Princeton Theological Seminary. He was an ordained elder in the Free Methodist Church and filled pulpits for many area churches before relocating in 2011 to Virginia to be near family.
In 2011, Professor Frank Thompson (front row, far right)
joined former colleagues from GU's Department of
Philosophy and Religion for a picture.
