\u201cThe Patterson School of Accountancy is consistently ranked among the top accounting programs in the country and, as such, it attracts students to Ole Miss who are committed to preparing themselves for careers as the next leaders of the accounting profession,\u201d the Memphis<\/strong>, Tennessee<\/strong>, resident said. \u201cThese students come from across the nation and beyond, and they raise the bar academically for the overall reputation of Ole Miss<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSimilar to athletics, to continue competing with other top-ranked universities in attracting the \u2018best of the best\u2019 accounting students, the facilities also must be \u2018best of the best.\u2019 This facility with state-of-the-art capabilities will raise the visibility of the program and ensure our university\u2019s ongoing position of prominence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thompson\u2019s $125,000 gift is committed to the construction of the 100,000-square-foot new home for the Patterson School at the intersection of University Avenue and Grove Loop, overlooking the Grove<\/strong>. To recognize his gift, the school will name a second-floor faculty suite in Thompson\u2019s honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI look forward to seeing the Patterson School maintain its top ranking among SEC <\/strong>schools and be the No. 1-ranked program in the nation,\u201d said the CPA and wealth management adviser. “This facility will be a magnet for attracting talented students as well as the next generation of highly qualified faculty.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Long a fixture in national rankings, the school is ranked No. 8 in the U.S. and No. 1 in the SEC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For many years, Thompson and his wife, Jan, have been committed to \u201cgiving back in appreciation of the blessings we have enjoyed because of my Ole Miss education and experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur focus has been primarily directed to need-based scholarship opportunities at Ole Miss and in our broader Memphis community. We previously had not considered capital campaign projects., but we recognize the significant impact this facility will have on generations of accounting professionals.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark Wilder<\/strong>, the school’s dean, expressed appreciation for Thompson\u2019s gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is both humbling and inspiring to have Gordon Thompson and other accountancy alumni so interested, committed, and engaged in helping our school move to even greater heights of excellence,” Wilder said. “Gordon has been a loyal and generous supporter of ours for many years \u2013 and has played an important role in the successes that the Patterson School enjoys today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis new building will help us recruit outstanding students, faculty and staff, and will ensure that the future is bright for the Patterson School for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a high school student, Thompson was drawn to the then-relatively small enrollment at Ole Miss and its proximity to Memphis, his hometown. His mother also had attended the university. He thought limited financial resources would keep him in Memphis, but he was surprised with an offer of scholarships and financial aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thompson visited Oxford <\/strong>for the first time when he arrived for fraternity rush the week before classes began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUltimately, I selected accounting with the expectation that it would provide the strongest foundation and a defined occupational path,” he said. “That led me to a deeper relationship with my Sigma Nu<\/strong> fraternity advisers, (the now late) Gene Peery and Dr. Jimmy Davis, both legendary accountancy professors who encouraged and supported me, including arranging for a part-time position at a local business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When he graduated in 1975, he entered a difficult job market, initially working as a junior accountant in a publicly held company. He had plans to enter law school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI quickly determined that the opportunity to serve a diverse clientele and collaborate with them to accomplish their goals was the career I was seeking,\u201d said Thompson, who was a founder and managing partner of the Memphis CPA <\/strong>firm Mayer Thompson Dunavant PLC<\/strong>, the largest local firm at the time. \u201cMy partners and I are most proud of the hundreds of professional careers we influenced during those 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, Thompson leads TD Capital<\/strong>, a wealth management<\/strong> firm he founded in 1996.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany of our current client relationships date back to my earliest days in public accounting<\/strong>,” he said. “I cannot imagine any other career path that could have been as rewarding as the one that started in Mr. Peery\u2019s principles of accounting class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thompson and his wife previously endowed the Claude P. Thompson Ole Miss First Scholarship<\/strong> to honor his mother while assisting accountancy majors from nontraditional families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To learn more about supporting the Patterson School of Accountancy building, contact Jason McCormick, executive director for development, at\u00a0jason@olemiss.edu<\/a>\u00a0or 662-915-1757; or give online\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n N. Gordon Thompson contributes to building fund by Tina H. Hahn N. Gordon Thompson hopes his investment in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123462,"featured_media":140873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25263],"tags":[29455,28972,29457,16642,29452,468,5,29451,7067,4,16634,29454,2311,6585,29453,2676,2012,655,29456],"class_list":["post-140870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-news","tag-accountant","tag-accounting","tag-claude-p-thompson-ole-miss-first-scholarship","tag-mark-wilder","tag-mayer-thompson-dunavant-plc","tag-memphis","tag-mississippi","tag-n-gordon-thompson","tag-ole-miss","tag-oxford","tag-patterson-school-of-accountancy","tag-public-accounting","tag-sec","tag-sigma-nu","tag-td-capital","tag-tennessee","tag-the-grove","tag-university-of-mississippi","tag-wealth-management"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Thompsons-scaled-e1720459919273.jpg?fit=1920%2C2184&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140875,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140870\/revisions\/140875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Accountancy-amphitheater.jpg\")
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