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Our History: Featured Alumni/ae: Thompson, W. Carrington, 1938

Over the decades our graduates have developed distinguished careers as justices, members of Congress, ambassadors, educators, business people, and community leaders in many fields. This site features some of those late graduates.

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William Carrington Thompson

Justice, Supreme Court of Virginia

W. Carrington Thompson was born in Chatham, Virginia on November 6, 1915. He attended Hampden-Sydney College, where he graduated in 1935. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1938 and was admitted to the bar the same year. From 1948 to 1955, he was Commonwealth’s Attorney for Pittsylvania County, Virginia and, from 1959 to 1968, he was a member of the House of Delegates, serving as a Democrat. In 1968, he was elected to the Senate of Virginia where he remained until being elected a judge for the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit in 1973. The General Assembly elected Judge Thompson to the Supreme Court of Virginia, effective February 1, 1980. Justice Thompson retired from active service on the Court in 1983. Justice Thompson died at his home in Chatham on June 11, 2011.

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