Dr. Sherwood Thompson

PRIVATE SERVICE
A public memorial will be held at a later date in Richmond, KY when restrictions due to Covid-19 are lifted.


Dr. Sherwood Thompson, 68, passed away on Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020, at Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in Richmond, KY. He lived in Richmond with his wife, Dr. Doris Crawford Thompson.

Dr. Thompson was born on January 7, 1952, in Greenville, South Carolina. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of South Carolina at Spartanburg, a Master of Education and a Doctor of Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In addition to being awarded two faculty fellowships from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, he was the recipient of the following: the Mid-Level Professional Training Certificate from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, a Certificate from The Teacher Education Council of State Colleges and Universities Dean’s Leadership Institute, and a Certificate from The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education Dean’s Leadership Institute. He received a Certificate from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, Dean’s Advanced Development Institute, and he was a UC Berkeley Executive Leadership Academy Fellow.

Dr. Thompson was the former Assistant Dean of the College of Education at Eastern Kentucky University, former Executive Director of the Model Laboratory School and the Teacher Education Services Office. Dr. Thompson was a tenured full-professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling Education at Eastern Kentucky University. In addition, Dr. Thompson's work included five books and a two-volume 900-page encyclopedia on diversity and social justice. Dr. Thompson is listed in The Encompass Digital Repository with over 60 scholarly papers. Dr. Thompson served as the Principle Investigator for the Call Me Mister® Program, an African American male teacher leadership program and for The Best Should Teach Program, a teaching excellence program for district and College educators.

Dr. Thompson attained distinction through a lengthy and productive career, directing campus-wide diversity programs for three major Carnegie Foundation Division 1 public research universities, as well as one regional polytechnic university. He served as the Executive Director of the Association for the Advancement of Educational Research International. He was the former interim chief diversity officer at EKU. Under his leadership as interim chief diversity officer, he was awarded the 2016 Higher Education Excellent in Diversity (HEED) Award for innovative diversity program development. Professor Thompson served on the editorial boards of the Kentucky Journal of Excellence in College Teaching and Learning, Journal for the Advancement of Educational Research, and he was a reviewer for the International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities and Nations, and the Journal of Negro Education.

Dr. Thompson served twice as a delegate to the College Board Chinese Bridge Delegation. Also, he was invited to India as a guest lecturer, speaking at the India Institute of Technology in Bangalore and the Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Education in Coimbatore. He was a frequent reviewer on doctoral committees at the University of Karachi, Pakistan and Mother Teresa Women’s University in Kodaikanal, India. In 2015 he was awarded the Salzburg Global Seminar Fellowship in Salzburg Austria. He exceled in building global citizenship awareness and international programs, as evidenced by his frequent visitations at international schools and universities and his scholarly presentations at international conferences.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by: his mother, Carolyn Harris and stepfather, Richard Harris of Greenville, SC; his mother-in-law, Jeanette Crawford, of Clarksdale, MS; a special aunt, Jacqueline Chatman, of Gary, IN; two sisters, Vanessa Harris, and Penny Hawthorne; one son, Malik Thompson and daughter-in-law, Jessica, of NY; one daughter, Aminah Thompson, of Durham, NC; two grandsons, Khari Thompson, of NY, and Josiah Jefferson Thompson, of NC; a brother-in-law, Monty Crawford; one niece, Brandy Hawthorne; one uncle, Isadore Thompson; and a special cousin, Ronnie Harris.