Butch Thompson took tough, good government stands

“If anybody needed help — enemy or friend, whether he knew you or didn’t — he was there,” Barnes said. “I really grieve his death, and this community is going to be at a loss without him.”

Joseph Conrad “Butch” Thompson, a Kennesaw businessman and two-term Cobb County commissioner in the late 1970s to mid-1980s, died Tuesday. He was 75. His service was Friday.

> Read and sign the online guestbook for Butch Thompson

Born in Atlanta on April 12, 1944, Thompson was raised by his grandparents in South Boston, Va., after the death of his mother when he was an infant.

He moved back when he was 12 to Kennesaw, where he met and later married his wife of 55 years, Marsha. He founded the civil engineering firm, Butch Thompson Enterprises.

He was still trying to run the business from his hospital bed recently, son Jud Thompson said.

In his late 30s, Thompson took on the role of helping guide Cobb County through a period of rapid suburban growth during two-terms as a county commissioner.

“He will be remembered as a leader who brought people together to make positive change,” County Manager Rob Hosack said.

Thompson was long gone from county government when in 2005 he filed a lawsuit over the Cobb school board’s decision to put Apple laptop computers in the hands of students, grades 6 to 12.

Thompson didn’t object to the potentially ground-breaking laptop program but was against using sales-tax money to pay for it without clear sign-off from voters. The project was to be paid for with money collected from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax voters approved 2003. But that project had not been detailed in the runup to the vote.

He had personal ties to the issue, as fellow Cobb countians and friends, Barnes and then-state Sen. Johnny Isakson, had developed the SPLOST law; and Thompson was a county commissioner when Cobb held the state’s first-ever SPLOST vote.

He believed the credibility of the school system’s education SPLOST was on the line, and he feared if the laptop program proceeded, “We’d never get another SPLOST passed in Cobb County.”

“To some people, I was a villain. But I felt I had to take a stand,” Thompson said in 2007.

With Barnes as his attorney he prevailed in court, and the school system abandoned the idea.

> Read the AJC  news story about Butch Thompson's death.

Not long after that success, Thompson and others filed a lawsuit alleging Dwight Brown, CEO of Cobb EMC, had misused $286 million to keep the nonprofit cooperative afloat that should have been returned to EMC members. The suit was settled in 2014 for $98 million.

The controversy divided the community, but Thompson did not shy from the fight, son Jud said.

“That showed his character, his resolve and how he was going to weather that storm no matter what because it was the right thing to do,” he said.

He also had a softer side that was less publicized.

State Sen. Lindsey Tippins from Marietta met Thompson in 1968 and described him as “one of the most generous people I’ve ever known.”

“Butch just had generous in his DNA,” Tippins said.

Thompson loved to cook and hosted huge Thanksgiving dinners at his office, inviting 200 to 300 people, including employees and widows.

In the heyday of these events, Thompson and crew cooked up 1,200 turkeys, a couple of hundred Boston butts, ribs and all the trimmings, son Jud said.

Guests were encouraged to take two turkeys home – one for themselves and one to give to someone in need, he said.

Tippins said Thompson also cooked the meat for his last senate fundraiser.

He also helped out when son Jud and the Marietta Kiwanis Club wanted to create a tribute to the victims of the September 11 terror attacks. The Kiwanis Club planned to install 2,996 American flags locally, one for each victim. Thompson jumped in to help, dispatching his company’s 160 employees to assist.

Son Jud, who worked beside Thompson at the business, describes his father as a man of faith and the “most tender-hearted, generous and loving man I’ve ever met.”

“He is a child of God, and he wants to share with others who might not have the opportunities he has had.”