Bishop Richard Keith Thompson

Bishop Thompson, a native of Kannapolis, North Carolina, is a graduate of Livingstone College and Hood Theological Seminary, Salisbury, North Carolina. Livingstone bestowed upon him the honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree. He has done further study at San Francisco Theological Seminary, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C., and St. Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, Missouri.

His early pastorate included churches in Catawba, NC, Lincolnton, NC and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1972, he was appointed pastor of Trinity A. M. E. Zion Church, Washington, D.C., where he was the pastor of twenty years. He was elected to the bishopric from Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church, the eighty-sixth in succession of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in Atlanta, Georgia, July 1992.

He served as the Presiding Bishop of the Alabama-Florida Episcopal District. This Episcopal District encompassed the entire states of Alabama and Florida, where he administered eight conferences, which included 21 districts with over 200 churches. While in the Alabama-Florida Episcopal District, he made a number of visible accomplishments, such as: the establishment of an Episcopal headquarters office building that also houses the Varick Bookstore; the refurbishing and renovation of Lomax-Hannon Jr. College; the setting in motion of a Ministers' Course of Sutdy Curriculum at Lomax-Hannon Jr. college; the acquisition of an Episcopal residence; and numerous churches were built or remodeled during his leadership.

Bishop Thompson served on the Pan-Methodist Commission. Additionally, he serves as chairman or vice-chairman of several boards in the A.M.E. Zion Church. Among them are the Brotherhood Pensions Department, the Board of Trustees of Livingstone College, Commission on Family Life, Public Relations and Historical Society.

He is married to the former Georgia McNair of Plymouth, North Carolina. Mrs. Thompson is a retired teacher in the public schools in Washington, D.C. They are the parents of two children and they are the proud and blessed grandparents of three adorable grandchildren.