Larry Dean Thompson was born in Hannibal, Missouri, on November 15, 1945, to Ezra and Ruth Thompson. Brenda Ann Taggart was born on June 9, 1946, in Salisbury, North Carolina, to Everett V. Taggart and Julia Chambers. Larry and Brenda met in graduate school in 1968 and were married in Salisbury on July 26, 1970.
Larry graduated from Culver-Stockton College in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, from Michigan State University in 1969 with a master’s degree, and from the University of Michigan in 1974 with his Juris Doctor Law degree. Larry also holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Pace University in New York, and an Honorary Doctorate from St. Louis University.
Larry was the former U.S. Deputy Attorney General (2001-2003), the second-highest-ranking position in the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Thompson joined PepsiCo in 2004 and served as Senior Vice President for Government Affairs and General Counsel. He also served as the John A. Sibley Professor of Corporate and Business Law at the University of Georgia. Larry joined Finch McCranie LLP as Counsel in July 2015. Mr. Thompson also served as the Independent Compliance Monitor and Auditor for Volkswagen AG from 2017 to 2020.
During his tenure as Deputy Attorney General, Larry led the Department of Justice’s National Security Coordination Council, as well as the government-wide Corporate Fraud Task Force. In 2000, Congress selected Larry to chair the bi-partisan Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Asset Control. In 2004, he served as a Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
Prior to serving as U.S. Deputy Attorney General, Larry was a partner with the Atlanta-based law firm of King & Spalding, LLP, and was co-founder of the firm’s special matters and government investigations practice. He previously served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia from 1982 to 1986. From 1995 to 1998, he served as Independent Counsel for the Department of Housing and Urban Development Investigation.
He has received numerous awards for his professional achievements, including the Edmund Jennings Randolph Award for outstanding contributions to the accomplishment of the Department of Justice’s mission, the Outstanding Litigator Award from the Federal Bar Association and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Pace University in New York. He has also been recognized by Atlanta’s Gate City Bar Association as a member of its Hall of Fame.
Larry has been on the Board of several organizations including Graham Holdings, Southern Company, Frankin Templeton, the George W. Bush Foundation, Chautauqua Institute, University of Georgia and the Georgia Historical Society. Larry’s first book, Quiet Counsel, was released in November 2024.
Brenda graduated from North Carolina Central with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967, and from Michigan State with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1969, and from Saint Louis University with her Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology in 1980. Brenda also holds an Honorary Doctorate from St. Louis University. Brenda was an Assistant Professor at Morehouse College in the Department of Psychology for several years before focusing on child and adolescent mental health, first as a licensed Clinical Psychologist, then as a School Psychologist. Brenda retired in 2005 after 30 years with the Educational System.
Brenda is a former chair of the Board of Advisors for the Georgia Museum. She also has served on the Barnes Foundation Board, Costal Georgia Historical Society, the Chautauqua Institute African American Heritage House, Michigan State University Broad Museum Collections Committee, International Art and Artists and Telfair Collections Committee. Her current Boards include Emory University Hatch Billops Board and the Museum Trustees Association.
Brenda and Larry have been collecting works by African-American artists since 1980. A 2008 exhibition, “Tradition Redefined: The Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection of African American Art,” containing selections from their collection, was hosted by the David C. Driskell Center in Maryland. It traveled to six venues. They have donated works to several museums, most notably the Georgia Museum of Art, where they also endowed a curatorial appointment in their name. That museum organized the exhibition “Expanding Tradition: Selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection” in 2017.
The Driskell Center at the University of Maryland has been an important influence on their collecting history. Their most recent gifts to the Driskell Center in 2018 and 2020 were intended to continue to raise awareness of the depth and breadth of the African-American art cannon. Their gifts supported funding the Living Legacy Tour with the late Professor David Driskell and Driskell Director Curlee Holton, which toured nine cities. The gift also funded the Thompson Collection Fellowship that supports graduate positions that work with the Driskell Center. In 2025, the National Gallery of Art featured a selection of some 60 works from the 170 that the Thompsons have donated or pledged as gifts to the National Gallery of Art. The show was visited by more than 89,000 visitors.
Larry and Brenda established the Larry and Brenda Thompson Advancement Fund at the Georgia Historical Society in 2026, ensuring that their commitment to Georgia history will continue in perpetuity.