William H. Thompson (June 16, 1895 – July 6, 1981) was a writer,

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

, professor,

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

minister, and the father-in-law of

Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net w ...

. William Hertzog Thompson was born in 1895 in

Greeley, Colorado Greeley is the home rule municipality city that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Weld County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,795 at the 2020 United States Census, an increase of 17.12% since the 2010 ...

, to Lorin Andrew Thompson, a newspaper editor and postal inspector, and Annie Hertzog Thompson, a mother of four sons and active church member. In 1903 the family moved to

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

where Thompson eventually graduated from the

University of Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was originally kno ...

(later part of the University of Nebraska) in 1917 and he received his master's from the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

in 1925 in educational psychology. Thompson worked as a Presbyterian minister and a high school teacher and coach at various schools in Iowa and Nebraska. In 1922 Thompson married Dorothy Long who was a teacher at the

Iowa School for the Deaf Iowa School for the Deaf is a pre-K to 12th grade school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students located in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It serves students who live in Iowa and Nebraska. History The founders of Iowa School for the Deaf were Edmund Booth ...

where her father, J. Schuyler Long, was the long time principal and published the first sign-language dictionary. In 1930 Thompson received a Ph.D. in psychology from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, where his uncle,

William Oxley Thompson William Oxley Thompson, D.D. (November 5, 1855 – December 9, 1933) was the fifth President of The Ohio State University. Biography Thompson was born in Cambridge, Ohio to David Glenn Thompson and Agnes Miranda Oxley. Thompson was educate ...

had been president, and then Thompson went on to teach and serve as a dean at the University of Nebraska and University of Omaha until he retired in 1960. Thompson's second daughter, Susan Buffett, married Warren Buffett in 1952. William Thompson was one of the earliest investors in Buffett's partnerships. Thompson died in 1981, at age 86, and Thompson's daughter, Susan Buffett and her family donated the "William H. Thompson Scholars Learning Community" at the University of Nebraska (Omaha) in his honor.

Notable Works by Thompson

*"An Experiment with the Dalton Plan" (1933) *"An Analysis of Errors in Written Composition By Deaf Children" (1936)An Analysis of Errors in Written Composition By Deaf Children - jstor www.jstor.org/stable/44391403 by WH Thompson - 1936 *''The Fool Has Said God is Dead'' (1966) *''Songs of Nebraska'' (1977)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, William 1895 births 1981 deaths 20th-century American psychologists Buffett family Ohio State University Graduate School alumni University of Nebraska alumni