Long before winning his seat on the Kentucky Supreme Court, Kelly Thompson spent his summers at work with his father, wandering the halls of Van Meter Hall and watching a younger College Heights Herald at work.
Thompson is a WKU alumni and the son of former WKU president Kelly Thompson, Sr., who was president from 1955 to 1979.
“I grew up with the Herald, that was where my love is, and those people were so nice to me when I was a little boy,” Thompson said.
Thompson said the Herald had only two or three staff members during his childhood. He said they had very few resources and operated out of “a little closet” in Van Meter.
Thompson said despite the small staff and lack of resources the Herald did good work.
“The Herald has had a long tradition of excellence, and it was an excellent student publication at that time,” Thompson said.
Thompson said that when his father was “very fond” of the Herald’s work.
“He loved the Herald he grew up with,” Thompson said. “He looked at it as his baby.”
According to the Kentucky Court of Justice, Thompson graduated from WKU in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate. Although he did not major in journalism, he took journalism classes at WKU.
Thompson said that he learned to appreciate good journalism from his journalism classes and his proximity to the Herald in his youth.
“I believe in journalism, journalistic ethics and the courses I took in journalism at Western have helped shape me tremendously on what I expect out of journalism,” Thompson said.
Thompson explained that having a grasp of journalism now helps him in his job as a Kentucky Supreme Court Justice. Thompson said he turned to news outlets in December to gain accurate statistics for a ruling on high-speed chases.
“Everything goes hand in hand with the law,” Thompson said.
This piece is number 8/100 of Herald 100, a project to celebrate a century of the College Heights Herald. To see more from this project, click here.
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