Years before the development of a successful cochlea (inner ear) implant for the hearing impaired, Dr. Robert Thompson of Newnan headed up innovative research projects aimed at finding new ways to conquer deafness. He conducted inner ear research at Bowman-Gray School of Medicine in North Carolina in the mid 1960s. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, his research attracted the attention of university leaders and donors.
In a letter to a Georgia Tech supporter in 1970, Dr. Walter Bloom, then the university’s associate vice president for academic affairs, wrote about “the great effort and effective program Dr. Robert Thompson has been developing” with a group of Tech engineers. “This important and exciting approach to complex problems involves both medicine and engineering. This work is very sophisticated and very fundamental. The answers from this type of work may well provide solutions to some of our insoluble problems in connection with hearing.”
Thompson was among experts around the country who conducted research on the inner ear and deafness, which helped pave the way for the first cochlear implant, credited to inventor Dr. William House in 1969.
Dr. Robert Franklin Thompson died on July 2 after a long illness. He was born in Newnan on May 6, 1931, to Rebecca Ingram of Sharpsburg and Joseph Franklin Thompson of Heflin, Ala. He attended Emory at Oxford and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Georgia where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He graduated from Emory University School of Medicine in 1956 and completed his internship in internal medicine at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. He was a flight surgeon with the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command from 1958 to 1960.
Thompson completed his residency in head and neck surgery at North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Bowman-Gray School of Medicine in 1964. After six months of research on the inner ear, he established his private practice in Atlanta. He was chief of the ear, nose and throat department at Piedmont Hospital from 1970 to 1974, and adjunct associate professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and a teacher for ear research at Georgia Tech. He moved back to Newnan in 1975 and established a private ear, nose and throat practice.
Thompson was elected to the Newnan Hospital board of directors in 1978 and served until he retired in 1998. He was a member of the Georgia Surgical Society, Georgia Society of Otolaryngology, American Board of Otolaryngology and many other professional societies. Thompson was a lifetime member of Central Baptist Church. He participated in numerous medical missions in the Caribbean.
Thompson’s wife, Judy, said that on the missions, including Haiti and St. Vincent, among others, Thompson treated children and adults for a variety of hearing problems. She said, “He really liked being able to help people. And he was kind and caring, and his patients everywhere loved him.
“He saw people who were suffering from many different hearing issues. Sometimes, children simply had fluid in their ears, which prevented them from hearing and often, speaking. They needed to have tubes in their ears, and Robert would perform surgery to relieve those and other problems in hospitals that were extremely primitive. He really liked being able to help people. And he was kind and caring, and his patients everywhere loved him.”
In addition to his wife of 34 years, Thompson is survived by daughter and son-in-law Pam and Pat Weber of Cumming; daughter and son-in-law Cyndi and Robert Aiken of Dahlonega; son and daughter-in-law, Rock and Beth Thompson of Zachary, La.; daughter, Caroline Thompson of Chattanooga; and five grandchildren.
The family requested that contributions be made to the Coweta Samaritan Clinic in Newnan.
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